Nov. 16, 2017 Print Edition by Shepherd Express

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NOVEMBER 16, 2017 | 5

::NEWS&VIEWS FEATURES | POLLS | TAKING LIBERTIES | ISSUE OF THE WEEK

Why Wisconsin Needs to Reinvest in UWM Walker’s misguided policies are jeopardizing the university’s and Wisconsin’s future ::BY WILLIAM L. HOLAHAN AND CHARLES O. KRONCKE

fter 60 years of hard work and dedication, UW-Milwaukee has been recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as one of America’s top-tier research universities. This “R-1” ranking goes to only 2% of all U.S. universities and is awarded for excellence in faculty research and graduate programs and the accomplishments of its alumni. Milwaukee and Wisconsin have been honored in national publications for building and supporting such an outstanding academic institution. This national recognition may be short-lived due to the long series of reductions in UWM’s operating budget and a prolonged tuition freeze. The high return on educational investment represented by this award should be grounds to increase the UWM budget. Instead, the policies put forward by Gov. Scott Walker and a Republican-led state legislature risk losing in a few short years the achievements of a lifetime. UWM is experiencing significant faculty losses, larger class sizes and higher student costs due to delays in degree completion. All these losses will have a negative impact when Carnegie conducts its next analysis of the campus. If this hard-won recognition is lost, the national story will be one of condemnation: Why did Wisconsin squander such an achievement?

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Loss of Faculty

Despite the high quality of life in the Milwaukee metropolitan area, the exodus of UWM faculty has begun. Outstanding people have been lost because of dramatically shrinking state support. Competing universities have offered more stable jobs, often with much higher salaries, along with support for research and financing of national and international collaborations. Since 2010, the number of tenured and tenure-track professors in the physics department is down 24% (from 26 to 19). The story is the same in biological science—from 38 down to 26. The economics department has lost 26 % of its faculty; educational psychology 48%; history 27%. One measure of the quality lost is to look at where they have all gone: UCLA, Minnesota, Tufts, Texas A&M, North Carolina, Ohio State and Duke. Not a single program has been immune. All university stakeholders—students, parents, donors, business collaborators, alumni—should be alarmed.

Background for Growth

UWM’s growth into a top-tier research university was envisioned from the early 1960s by both Republican and Democratic governors and educators. Excellence was demanded—jump-started by recruiting established professors from major universities, along with promising newly minted PhDs. All were hired with competitive compensation and support for their ambition to contribute to their discipline. They would be evaluated using academic standards based on performance review by their professional peers. These standards were, and remain, essential ingredients to building and maintaining a great university—one with faculty, graduate and undergraduate students working at the frontiers of knowledge in cutting-edge programs. Incredibly, the current political leadership in Madison no longer appears to recognize the critical importance of having two public research universities, even though they are both crucial to Wisconsin’s ability to compete in the world economy. Cutting-edge teaching and research in Milwaukee—Wisconsin’s largest city and its economic engine—contribute strongly to economic development, precisely the role UWM has so successfully played. It is clearly counter-productive to demolish this human capital asset; Wisconsin’s ability to thrive in the 21st century will be diminished. The next generation will need more education, not less.

Impact on Students

A recent College Board study titled “Education Pays 2016” shows that the return on investment in college has never been greater. Although job and wage growth rates for college graduates have fallen somewhat since the Great Recession, the situation for non-college graduates has been much worse, and so the gap has widened. A college degree remains the single most effective credential for entry into meaningful middle-class careers. Numbered among UWM’s graduates are architects, artists, business executives, educators, engineers, entertainers, healthcare professionals, religious leaders and scientists. Many of these were the first in their family to attend college; some from low-income and poverty-level families needed loans and part-time employment while enrolled. In many instances, UWM was the only university they could afford to attend. It was the only place available for them to learn of the excitement of discovery and the importance of life-long learning; and they had this opportunity at a first-rate research university. The benefits of attending a strong research university are numerous, but many are not immediately obvious. Contrary to cynical beliefs, faculty members engaged in research in their discipline receive a disproportionate share of the teaching awards and accolades based on student evaluations. On reflection, this should not be surprising. The quest for discovery and new knowledge springs from passionate minds and generates excitement and optimism that are contagious.

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In addition to exposing students to their research in the classroom, research professors exert a strong influence over the design of the curriculum, the design and implementation of teaching techniques, choice of textbooks, use of social media and the hiring and mentoring of new professors. The national research reputation of the professorial faculty greatly improves student chances of being accepted at top graduate, law and medical schools—and gaining employment with a major government agency, think tank, professional organization or corporation. These are the ingredients of upward mobility for so many young Wisconsin citizens.

Synergy with Economic Development

After years of sluggish job and wage growth, Wisconsin’s business community is understandably eager for the state’s economy to grow faster. They need well-trained employees. Accordingly, Wisconsin has invested in vocational schools and technical colleges that have an excellent track record for preparing and placing students in full-time employment. Of course, there must be multiple pathways to success for our youth. Nevertheless, the governor and legislature have expressed strong opinions that UW campuses should be repurposed to augment, if not duplicate, those existing institutions devoted to workforce development. This confusion of institutional roles is contrary to the fact that UWM, as a top-tier research university, has always contributed mightily to economic development. UWM has always graduated a huge number of employees for the state’s businesses, large and small. Nearly 80% of its graduates remain in Wisconsin. Moreover, it is common for businesses to consult with campus faculty and staff whenever they need the expertise they lack. It takes decades to develop that expertise; it is the product of the rigorous academic evaluation process used to assess the performance of research professors.

A Coordinated National Attack on Higher Education?

The agenda put forward by our governor and legislature is strongly influenced by the conservative, corporate-funded American Legislative Executive Council (ALEC). ALEC prepares template legislation with a radical bent, usually to squeeze money out of public institutions to finance “progrowth” tax cuts. As the experience of Kansas and Wisconsin demonstrates, those states that rely on ALEC’s advice grow more slowly because they starve the public sector’s ability to invest in infrastructure and education. It is easy to see why ALEC would want to downgrade universities: It is in those institutions where right-wing views on issues such as climate science and supply-side economics are shown to be without merit. Since they cannot compete based on ideas, they must promote the ruin of these institutions while distracting the public’s attention from what we are losing in the process. The danger with their intervention is that Wisconsin will lose a key engine of economic growth: the production of new knowledge and the spirit of discovery that produces it. The rate of Wisconsin’s production of new knowledge will slow—as will its capacity to house (i.e., to understand, explain and apply) the knowledge produced in the wider world. But the brain drain extends beyond the research laboratories of the university: Professionals who might have come here to participate in that inquiry and discovery—whether as faculty or employees of advanced manufacturing and high-technology firms—will simply choose not to locate here. Young

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people who aspire to professional lives will go elsewhere for a brighter future for themselves, and they will make their contribution there instead of here. Some of the cuts might make sense if there were a lot of fat in the UWM budget. There is none. A 2010 report on the costs of a university education by the Goldwater Institute found UWM to be one of the most efficient, high-valued universities in the nation. The place has been running on a shoestring for years. Now the shoestring is being frayed to the point of breaking.

Wrong Management Model, Wrong Leadership

To add to the folly, the government insists on imposing a business model on the university system. Apparently, the Board of Regents as well as Gov. Walker and his Republican colleagues in the legislature assume that something is terribly wrong with the UW system—even though it houses two Carnegie R-1 universities and has been known as one of the best state university systems in the U.S. They insist that, by making the system run more like a business, somehow whatever problems they perceive will be solved. Their plan is to install successful business executives into high university administrative posts without regard to their experience in higher education. In most instances, the regents are successful members of the Wisconsin business and legal communities. They are far more likely to be attuned to the nuances of business organizations than to those of academic institutions. Authority in most business organizations tends to be top-down, with those at the top taking risks with their own time and money,

SOME OF THE CUTS MIGHT MAKE SENSE IF THERE WERE A LOT OF FAT IN THE UWM BUDGET. THERE IS NONE. A 2010 REPORT ON THE COSTS OF A UNIVERSITY EDUCATION BY THE GOLDWATER INSTITUTE FOUND UWM TO BE ONE OF THE MOST EFFICIENT, HIGH-VALUED UNIVERSITIES IN THE NATION. THE PLACE HAS BEEN RUNNING ON A SHOESTRING FOR YEARS. NOW THE SHOESTRING IS BEING FRAYED TO THE POINT OF BREAKING.

thereby earning the right to direct employees. Accordingly, the regents have a hard time understanding why faculty cannot be managed by university administrators. They envision faculty as “employees” and “subordinates” to administrators—even though most of those “bosses” have no understanding of what those faculty do in their research or in the classroom. The reason is that, in universities, professors normally know far more about their work than administrators. Consequently, the true job of a university administrator is to facilitate the work of the faculty, not try to lead it. Moreover, evaluation of faculty research work relies on “peer review”—the rigorous process conducted by scholars throughout the world qualified to judge the research output of university professors. The top-down authoritarian business model being implemented at the UW system will disrupt this natural relationship between faculty, administration and the international community of scholars. Disruption can be great for society, especially when new products or processes are introduced into the marketplace to supplant less efficient ones, but this new alternative “business” model will not advance teaching or research at the university, rather it will retard growth and stifle creativity and innovation—the essence of the contribution that the university makes to society. Just as a successful research enterprise must be bottom-up, the only successful means of assessment and evaluation of its outcomes derives from the harsh light of peer review, not from politically motivated evaluation. The huge budget cuts and changes in academic oversight have already placed UWM at a serious competitive disadvantage in the fiercely competitive academic market for hiring and retaining faculty. Like all professional institutions, universities must meet or exceed market compensation and working conditions when competing for talent. Elsewhere in academia, compensation is going up, not down, as it has been in Wisconsin for the last decade. Similarly, joint administrative-faculty governance of the university is central to the integrity and productivity of professors’ work; this is true for every university in the R-1 group.

Not Too Late to Reinvest and Recover

After so many years of successful growth at UWM, the R-1 Carnegie ranking should highlight the opportunity lost by dismantling this great state asset. Continued underfunding of UWM devalues the investment and expectations of past taxpayers, diminishes the lifework of dedicated faculty and staff, squanders the generosity of Milwaukee’s business leaders and philanthropists and dims the prospects for students. All beneficiaries of this threatened institution should act now to demand that UWM’s budget more accurately reflect the high quality and importance of the work taking place on campus. It is not too late to rebuild UWM; but it will require significant state financial reinvestment to replace faculty lost to competition and to retain the coveted Carnegie Foundation R-1 designation. William Holahan is emeritus professor and former chair of the Department of Economics at UWM. Charles O. Kroncke served as professor and associate dean of business at UW-Madison, as well as dean of the school of business at UWM and the school of management at UT-Dallas. They are co-authors of Economics for Voters: 30 Issues for the 2012 Presidential Election. Comment at shepherdexpress.com.

NOVEMBER 16, 2017 | 7

NEWS&VIEWS::FEATURE

The Case Against Gerrymandering HOW A U.S. SUPREME COURT RULING WILL AFFECT OUR RIGHTS AS VOTERS ::BY ELIZABETH ELVING ill v. Whitford is one of the most significant and closely watched cases of the U.S. Supreme Court’s current term. Based on a lawsuit from 12 Wisconsin voters, it is now poised to rein in a practice that has obstructed voting rights and undermined democracy for hundreds of years: partisan gerrymandering. While both Democrats and Republicans have long been guilty of manipulating districts to secure political power, the Supreme Court has resisted getting involved. In 1986, the court’s justices first acknowledged the issue was “justiciable” (i.e., something courts could decide on) in Davis v. Bandemer. Nearly 20 years later, in Vieth v. Jubelirer, perennial swing-vote Justice Anthony Kennedy called for a “manageable” standard to determine when gerrymandering crossed a constitutional line. Many hope Whitford will provide that standard. This momentous case began in a tearoom in Downtown Milwaukee where a small group of lawyers and elections experts devised a plan to counter extreme partisan gerrymanders in Wisconsin and beyond. “We knew that we wanted to build a case that would go to the Supreme Court and resolve these issues once and for all,” says Peter Earle, a civil rights lawyer who represents the Whitford plaintiffs. “We dared to dream that.”

Building a Case In the 2010 election, Republicans won the Assembly, Senate and governorship at the best possible time. The Wisconsin Legislature is responsible for redrawing its districts every 10 years after the census is taken. On the heels of a new census and a grand slam electoral win, Republicans had unchecked control over the next decade of legislative maps. The result was Act 43—a districting plan that gave Republicans an insurmountable advantage. Rep. Fred Kessler (D-Milwaukee), a redistricting expert, concluded that Democrats would never get more than 40 Assembly seats under that plan. “I was really discouraged, looking at it,” he says. “I said, if we don’t challenge this in some way, we’re not going to have any ability to influence the state for a decade.” So Rep. Kessler decided to challenge it. He called several friends who had all expressed frustration with gerrymandering in the past and invited them to meet at Watts Tea Room on Jefferson Street. Among them was Earle, who had recently litigated Baldus v. Brennan, another redistricting case. More joined over time, including retired UW-Madison law professor William Whitford, who would become their lead plaintiff. Over biweekly breakfast meetings, the colleagues developed a strategy for challenging the gerrymander on constitutional grounds. To succeed, they would need to prove three things: that Republican leaders intended to reduce the influence of Democratic votes; that their maps had a discriminatory effect; and that the effect could not be explained by outside factors. With persistence (and some amount of serendipity) this team assembled a suit that satisfied all three points of this test and prevailed before a three-judge federal panel in the fall of 2016. The state appealed, and in June 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. 8 | NOVEMBER 16, 2017

Proving Partisan Intent To prove that Wisconsin’s legislative maps were drawn with partisan intent, Kessler and his team needed to access the documents from the drafting process. This was no easy feat. The process was carried out in a heavily restricted “map room” in the Madison law offices of Michael Best and Friedrich, across the street from the state capitol. Behind closed doors, legislative aides Tad Ottman and Adam Foltz and consultant Joseph Handrick, spent months tweaking and testing a sequence of maps. They used advanced voter data and the redistricting software autoBound, which, Earle explains, allowed them to map “with a scalpel instead of a cleaver.” Every time the drafters moved a line on their computerized maps, a customized “composite partisan score” showed how the change affected the partisan makeup of that area. So, while their map appeared to be divided into logical segments—a far cry from the infamous salamandershaped voting districts that the practice is named after—individual districts had been subtly, enduringly, transformed. “Having that data on hand makes it possible to cut these lines pretty precisely,” says Matthew Lynch, special counsel at the law firm Foley and Lardner. “A swerve here and a swerve there can add votes and take votes away. You do that enough times, you can create heavily partisan districts that otherwise look like normal contiguous blocks.”

‘Totally and Completely Bogus’ The drafters’ work was highly secretive. Republican leaders had to sign nondisclosure agreements before seeing the maps and were permitted to view only their own districts. When lawyers for the Baldus case requested the drafting documents, the firm refused. “They argued that they didn’t have to produce the documents because they were covered by attorney-client privilege,” Earle says. “It was totally and completely bogus.” A panel of judges

agreed and repeatedly ordered that Michael Best and Friedrich hand over the documents—fining them $17,000 when they resisted. Even then, the information the firm released was incomplete, with key data missing. In 2012, Democrats briefly regained control of the Senate (after several recall elections) and demanded that the remaining documents be released. Under court order, Republicans provided three computers—with hard drives that had been tampered with. “Somebody had taken a hammer to them,” Earle recalls. “Hundreds of thousands of documents had been erased.” Forensic investigator Mark Lanterman retrieved many of the deleted files, including Excel spreadsheets revealing how the drafters had revised successive versions of the map to produce a stronger Republican majority, one that would hold through multiple election cycles. Finally uncovered, this information was enough to satisfy the three-judge panel. In the majority opinion, Judge Kenneth Ripple wrote: “[T]he evidence establishes that one of the purposes of Act 43 was to secure Republican control of the Assembly under any likely future electoral scenario for the remainder of the decade; in other words, to entrench the Republican Party in power.”

Measuring Discriminatory Effect In addition to evidence of partisan intent, the Whitford plaintiffs needed a bright-line rule showing that the maps were so discriminatory that they violated Democrats’ constitutional rights. That elusive standard had been the Holy Grail for gerrymandering critics ever since Justice Kennedy requested it in Vieth. Kessler’s group had been working to formulate something, but struggled to find a solution. Then, in 2014, they got a lucky break. Richard Pildes, a New York University School of Law professor with whom they’d been in contact, sent them an unpublished paper he was reviewing about a new measure called the “Efficiency Gap” (EG). “We saw the article and said, ‘This is the magic bullet,’” Kessler says. “’We can prove what Wisconsin has done.’” In a gerrymander, legislators “crack” the opposing party into different districts where they’ll be in the minority, and “pack” them into concentrated areas where they’ll win by wide margins. These maneuvers increase a party’s “wasted” votes that either back the losing candidate or exceed a simple majority. The EG—developed by University of Chicago Law School professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos and political scientist Eric McGhee—counts how many votes are “wasted” by each party and divides the difference by the total number of votes cast. Applying this formula to past elections across multiple states, political scientist Simon Jackman found that if one party wins an election with an EG of 7% or higher, that party is pretty much guaranteed to keep winning for as long as the districting plan is in effect. Wisconsin’s EG was well above that threshold: 13% in 2012 and 11% in 2014. “[Stephanopoulos] measured a number of states that had done a 2011 redistricting, and found that Wisconsin’s was the most extreme,” Kessler says. “This was the most egregious map he had come across.” The Whitford team invited Stephanopoulos to Milwaukee for a meeting at Watts Tea Room. He was joined by his fiancée, Ruth Greenwood, who was at the time working for the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and is now senior legal counsel on redistricting for the campaign legal center. The couple, who have since married, became involved in building the case; both are now on the legal team for the Whitford plaintiffs.

Creating Fair Maps The final prong of Whitford’s three-part test is whether a map’s partisan slant can be justified by legitimate factors, like traditional redistricting criteria, or the high concentraSHEPHERD EXPRESS

NEWS&VIEWS::FEATURE

EVERY TIME THE DRAFTERS MOVED A LINE ON THEIR COMPUTERIZED MAPS, A CUSTOMIZED “COMPOSITE PARTISAN SCORE” SHOWED HOW THE CHANGE AFFECTED THE PARTISAN MAKEUP OF THAT AREA. SO, WHILE THEIR MAP APPEARED TO BE DIVIDED INTO LOGICAL SEGMENTS—A FAR CRY FROM THE INFAMOUS SALAMANDER-SHAPED VOTING DISTRICTS THAT THE PRACTICE IS NAMED AFTER— INDIVIDUAL DISTRICTS HAD BEEN SUBTLY, ENDURINGLY, TRANSFORMED. tion of Democrats in Milwaukee and Madison. Kenneth Mayer, a UW-Madison professor and expert for the plaintiffs, addressed this argument by creating a “Demonstration Map” with another computer program called Maptitude for Redistricting. Mayer’s map “was equivalent to Act 43 on population deviation, municipal splits, compliance with the Voting Rights Act and better on compactness,” but with no partisan intent. Its EG was only 2.2%, showing that external factors alone cannot account for the state’s vast imbalance. When the EG is lower, elected leaders are more vulnerable to political shifts and have more incentive to pursue moderate policies that have widespread support. “Creating districts that are more competitive forces legislators to compromise more and to cater to the mainstream of political opinion,” Lynch says. “Some of the things the legislature has done in the last 10 years, like the anti-union legislation, those were not meet-inthe-middle kinds of policies.” If Whitford prevails, Wisconsin will have to create a new, balanced map in time for the 2018 elections. It would then be a fairly elected legislature tasked with the next round of redistricting in 2021, which Earle says would put an end to a “dark era of divisive politics” for the state. The case would also set nationwide guardrails—preventing extreme partisan gerrymanders in other states. Whether districts are drawn by legislatures, courts or independent commissions, Kessler says, setting a standard is paramount. “So long as there’s a standard that takes into account real, twoparty politics and can be reviewed for fairness,” he says. “A standard that there cannot be excessive partisan redistricting. That’s good enough for me.” A Supreme Court decision on Gill v. Whitford is expected by June, 2018. Comment at shepherdexpress.com. SHEPHERD EXPRESS

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::SAVINGOURDEMOCRACY ( NOV. 16 - NOV. 22, 2017 )

ach week, the Shepherd Express serves as a clearinghouse for all activities in the greater Milwaukee area that peacefully push back against discriminatory, reactionary or authoritarian actions and policies of the Trump administration and other activities that seek to thwart social justice. We will publicize and promote actions, demonstrations, planning meetings, teach-ins, party-building meetings, drinking-discussion get-togethers or any other actions that are directed toward fighting back to preserve our liberal democratic system.

Thursday, Nov. 16

Stop the Mines Speaking Tour @ Alverno College (3400 S. 43rd St.), 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Physician Dennis Vickers will come to Alverno College to speak about the dangers of sulfide mining and the effects of Aquila Resources’ proposed Back Forty Mine on the Menominee Nation.

Friday, Nov. 17

Community Listening Session with Sen. Larson and Rep. Brostoff @ Milwaukee Public Library East Branch (2320 N. Cramer St.), 1-2:30 p.m.

Sen. Chris Larson and Rep. Jonathan Brostoff will hold a legislative listening session as an opportunity for their constituents to voice concerns about issues they find important.

Civil Liberties on Tap: Gil v. Whitford @ Riverwest Public House (815 E. Locust St.), 6-8 p.m.

The ACLU of Wisconsin, ACLU-Milwaukee Chapter, Fair Elections Project and the Marquette Center for Urban Research, Teaching and Outreach are coming together to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court’s gerrymandering case, Gil v. Whitford , in an oral arguments listening party.

Saturday, Nov. 18

Voter and Civic Engagement Campaign @ Acción Ciudadana de Wisconsin (221 S. Second St.), 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Acción Ciudadana de Wisconsin, Latino Voting Bloc of Wisconsin and Citizen Action of Wisconsin have organized a weekly Saturday campaign of knocking on doors and phone banking to get people thinking about the 2018 elections. Volunteers can go out and talk to voters about the issues that they care about and get them involved in different events happening in the community.

Lessons from the Long Black Freedom Struggle @ The Body & Soul Healing Arts Center (3617 N. 48th St.), 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

This half-day workshop is an opportunity to experience moments of the struggle for black equality. Author and Milwaukee native Erica Metcalfe will begin the event with a keynote address. The morning session will highlight key moments in Milwaukee

history. The afternoon session will expand the discussion into national and international developments. Register at eventbrite.com.

Peace Action Wisconsin: Stand for Peace @ The corner of Kinnickinnic and Russell avenues, noon-1 p.m.

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

Sunday, Nov. 19

Post-Holiday Parade Open House @ Waukesha County Democratic Party Headquarters (336 Wisconsin Ave., Waukesha), 5-7 p.m.

The Waukesha County Democratic Party will open its doors after the local holiday parade to let people know how they can get involved. They will be providing hot cocoa, coffee and treats.

Tuesday, Nov. 21

Community Discussion on Racism @ Shorewood Public Library (3920 N. Murray Ave., Shorewood), 5:30-7 p.m.

The YWCA of Southeast Wisconsin, Shorewood Public Library and the Shorewood Foundation are organizing a conversation with Martha Barry, racial justice director at the Southeastern Wisconsin YWCA. The conversation is designed to create an open dialogue on racial equity.

Mike McCabe Meet and Greet @ Jack’s Café (N4W22496 Bluemound Road, Waukesha), 6-8:30 p.m.

Mike McCabe, running in the Democratic primary for governor, will host a meet and greet at Jack’s Café in Waukesha. McCabe supports campaign finance reform, a $15 an hour minimum wage and full legalization of marijuana. To submit to this column, please send a brief description of your action, including date and time, to savingourdemocracy@shepex.com. Together, we can fight to minimize the damage that the administration of Donald Trump and others of his kind have planned for our great country. Comment at shepherdexpress. com.

NOVEMBER 16, 2017 | 9

NEWS&VIEWS::TAKINGLIBERTIES

Why Virginia Matters to Wisconsin ::BY JOEL MCNALLY

he Democratic tsunami that swept across Virginia and elsewhere in off-year elections last week struck well-deserved terror into the hearts of every cowardly Republican candidate failing to distance him or herself from Donald Trump, the unpopular political reprobate they put in the White House. The rout in Virginia especially has lessons for Wisconsin’s midterms next year because of some striking political parallels between those two states. First, the good news for all Americans: Republican gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie’s vile, racist, Trumpian campaign was demolished. Gillespie, once a decent, moderate Republican, ran totally indecent TV ads falsely tying Democratic candidate Ralph Northam, a mild-mannered pediatrician, to the murderous MS-13 Latino street gang (which barely exists in Virginia) and to child sexual predators. If Gillespie’s despicable campaign had worked, Republican candidates all over the country would have copied his Trump mini-me tactics next year. Although Virginia voted for Hillary Clinton and Northam by substantial margins, and Wis-

consin voted for Trump (barely), the two states are remarkably similar politically for exactly the same reason: Both are victims of extremely corrupt Republican gerrymandering, making it difficult for Democrats to win legislative and congressional elections ever since 2010—even when more Democrats than Republicans vote statewide. Before last week’s election, Republicans controlled Virginia’s House of Delegates by a seemingly overwhelming 66-34 margin, seven of the state’s 11 congressional seats and the Virginia State Senate by two seats—even though Republicans haven’t won a statewide election in Virginia since 2009. That compares with Republicans controlling Wisconsin’s Assembly 63-35, five of the state’s eight congressional seats and the Wisconsin State Senate by seven seats. Like Virginia, that political imbalance began following the 2010 census as a result of corrupt Republican gerrymandering. The U.S. Supreme Court is now considering whether voter disenfranchisement from Wisconsin’s gerrymandering was so extreme as to be unconstitutional. A similar federal court case from Virginia may soon join Wisconsin’s.

Take a Stand But here’s the best news for Wisconsin from Virginia’s election: Strong candidates and energized voters eager to take a stand against Trump’s hateful, embarrassing, un-American presidency can overcome even the most extreme partisan gerrymandering. Not only did Northam lead a Democratic sweep of the statewide offices

of governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, but those candidates themselves benefited from unprecedented Democratic victories in legislative districts long held by Republicans. Picking up 15 seats so far, Democrats almost completely wiped out the 32-vote Republican margin in the Virginia House of Delegates. Recounts scheduled in four districts narrowly led by Republicans (one by only 12 votes) ultimately will determine control of the chamber. There’s little mystery what led to the upsets. The shock of Trump’s election created a surge of strong Democratic candidates challenging Republicans in every legislative district. Republicans who had little opposition for years suddenly faced strong, aggressive campaigns from a highly diverse slate of qualified candidates. Strong campaigns by strong candidates can literally trump hatred and traditional political biases. Eleven of the successful Democratic challengers were women. Those women included the first transgender candidate elected to any legislature in the U.S., an openly gay woman, an immigrant from Peru and a former refugee from Vietnam. Many in Wisconsin may be unaware of their state’s direct connection to Danica Roem’s historic election as the nation’s first transgender legislator. Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, a strong supporter of gay rights and board chairman of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, was Roem’s largest single political donor, contributing at least $115,000 to her campaign. Abele made a point of adding $50,000 to his contributions the day he was at the White House

with Trump and Gov. Scott Walker for the Foxconn announcement. That morning, Trump tweeted he wanted to ban transgender soldiers from the military. Danica Roem, a former newspaper reporter with detailed knowledge of local issues, defeated Robert Marshall, a 13-term Republican incumbent who proudly called himself the state’s “chief homophobe” and insultingly used male pronouns to refer to his opponent. Even other Republicans shunned anti-gay legislation Marshall introduced, including a discriminatory “bathroom bill” to restrict transgender use of restrooms. More than a third of Virginia voters said the primary motivation for their vote was to take a stand against the offensive Trump agenda. Virginia and New Jersey were the only two states with regularly scheduled gubernatorial elections this year, and both went overwhelmingly Democratic. For Wisconsin and most of the rest of the nation, the first opportunity for voters to take such a stand will be midterm elections next year. The surge of strong candidates and energized voters should be starting in every district right now. The new normal after Trump doesn’t have to be any different from the old American values of equal rights, equal opportunities and equal treatment under the law for everyone. Voters are proving it by standing up to Trump and rising up against Republicans who fail to do the same. It’s your turn, Wisconsin. Comment at shepherdexpress.com. n

NEWS&VIEWS::POLL

You Don’t Support Republican Tax Cuts for the Rich Last week we asked if you would support a Republican tax proposal that provides massive tax cuts for the rich and increases the deficit, even if you personally received a modest tax cut under the plan. You said: n Yes: 10% n No: 90%

What Do You Say? Should Congress limit the president’s unilateral ability to launch a nuclear strike? n Yes n No Vote online at shepherdexpress.com. We’ll publish the results of this poll in next week’s issue.

10 | N O V E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 7

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

NEWS&VIEWS::ISSUEOFTHEWEEK

Tools for Rebuilding a Loving, Trusting Community in Light of Sex Abuse Scandals ::BY ELENA SANTI

n Friday, Oct. 13, Oak Creek High School teacher and coach Michael Jossie was charged with sexual assault of a child after being caught having sex with one of his students on school grounds. According to news reports, the teacher and student were in an ongoing sexual relationship. High school superintendent Tim Culverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s official statement says: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are shocked because the misconduct with which Mr. Jossie has been charged is inconsistent with his reputation in our district. We are sick at heart because we have committed our lives and careers to caring for and helping children and to learn that a child has been harmed in such a reprehensible way is unthinkable and intolerable.â&#x20AC;? Clearly, the impact of any sexual assault goes beyond those directly involved to affect the whole community. To move forward, we must address it head on as a community. To build a loving, trusting and supportive community, we must move past our own prejudices and biases.Â This isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t easy. But if we work to further open our hearts and mindsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; to acknowledge, accept and learn from our own mistakes and the mistakes of others and to come together in dialogueâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;we will be able to move forward with respect, trust and compassion. Below are tools to further understanding and spark conversations. As you read them, please think about how you can transform these suggestions into words and actions that relate to you and your inner circle.

Learning Moment #1: Understanding Power and Control

Merriam-Webster defines sexual assault as â&#x20AC;&#x153;illegal sexual contact that involves force upon a person without consent or is inflicted upon a person who is incapable of giving consent [as because of age or physical or mental incapacity] or who places the assailant [such as a teacher] in a position of trust or authority.â&#x20AC;? Sexual assault is not about sex; rather it is about power and control. When a person in a position of authority has sex with someone who is not an equal, sex becomes a tool of power, not love. In a teacher-student relationship, the teacher automatically holds the authority and power. When Jossie engaged in sex and an emotional affair with a student, he broke the trust that students and the community had placed in him as a teacher. One way to rebuild trust in our community is to chat about what we expect from teachersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;what a healthy teacher-student relationship looks likeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and then to identify positive role models.

Learning Moment #2: Breaking Away from the Love Affair Narrative

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Police also interviewed Jossie, who said he hadÂ more feelings than you are supposed to have as a teacher for the student. According to the complaint, Jossie said his feelings for the student began to change after he took her to dinner at an expensive restaurant.â&#x20AC;? The media set the tone for the conversation.

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Portraying this as a love story, or even highlighting Jossieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comments, perpetuates the â&#x20AC;&#x153;romanticâ&#x20AC;? narrative. In this learning moment, we can recognize that this is not a â&#x20AC;&#x153;romcomâ&#x20AC;? with a forbidden love story; this is real life with real consequences. Neither Jossieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feelings nor his previous good character can excuse him from the consequences he needs to face for his misuse of power and breaking the trust in our community between teachers and students. So, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s put this in perspective and help one another understand that this is a real teenagerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and many kidsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lives are impactedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not romantic. We can also recognize how the media frame stories such as this. We must think critically about media narratives and reject those that excuse abuses of power, becoming role models for framing conversations around sexual assault. This is another reason to engage in open conversations with one another.

Learning Moment #3: Boundaries and Respect

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s OK to feel uncomfortable having these conversations. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s normal. But if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel safe, you have options. If you do not feel safe (not just uncomfortable!) bringing up the issue, or you feel calling someone out directly will invite emotional, physical or psychological harm to you, you can still make an impact by having general conversations about boundaries and respect. Teach boundaries by asking someone if they want to be touched before touching them, whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a hug, tucking in a tag on their shirt or giving them a high five. Call out the verbal and nonverbal cues the person is sending you in response and let them know you respect their boundaries. Also, talk about respect. Practice asking others questions and allowing their responses without pushing back or arguing. This can be as simple as, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Do you want ketchup or mustard on your hot dog?â&#x20AC;? Call out your accepting their preferenceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;recognizing that, although you enjoy hot dogs differently, it is awesome either way. Another way to talk about sexual assault, boundaries and respect is to look at examples on TV shows, in movies and in music. There are many safe options to addressing this topic in our community.

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Learning Moment #4: Supporting Survivors

When someone discloses to you that they were sexually assaulted, you can provide compassionate emotional support. Listen with compassion, free of judgment. Say â&#x20AC;&#x153;thank youâ&#x20AC;? to them for sharing their story. Show your gratitude for their trust and recognize the strength it takes to speak out. Provide resources, but do not force action. Present them with resources and allow them to decide if they want to use any of them. Allowing the survivor to decide the next steps is crucial to him or her regaining power and control in their lives. These conversations are challenging, uncomfortable and not â&#x20AC;&#x153;Midwestern nice.â&#x20AC;? Do we want to limit our community by being â&#x20AC;&#x153;nice,â&#x20AC;? or do we want to do the difficult work of growing into a loving, trusting and supportive community? With these conversational tools for rebuilding our community, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accept this challenge to foster love and trust once again.

Learn how from industry pros. 5he popular Essentials of Voice Over course begins +BOVBSZ OE at a top commercial recording studio. Email findyourvoice@vomilwaukee.com to hold your spot in front of UIF NJD

Elena Santi creates and facilitates workshops and activities surrounding consent, bystander intervention, domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking prevention. She works at Our Next Generation, a non-profit organization providing academic tutoring to students in challenged communities located at 3421 W. Lisbon Ave. They can be reached at 414-344-2111. Comment at shepherdexpress.com.

N O V E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 7 | 11

::DINING

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FEATURE | SHORT ORDER | EAT/DRINK

La Serenata Reinvents Itself with Hearty Peruvian Food

La Serenata’s menu is divided into comida criolla, meaning traditional dishes ($8-$13.99), with several choices including tallarines verdes con bistec en su jugo, a Peruvian-style spaghetti with green pesto and sirloin steak, or ali de gallina, a spicy shredded creamed chicken with rice and potato. The chifa peruano, or PeruvianAsian fusion section ($7-$16), has an array of stir-fry and soups. Chifa emerged as a culinary tradition of Chinese and Peruvian fusion after the late 1800s, when thousands of Chinese immigrants went to Peru to work on the sugar plantations. These immigrants noticed the public’s growing interest in Eastern culture and started chifas, restaurants that served Chinese food made with some South American ingredients. The fish and seafood section ($10.99-$16) offers sedado de marisco, Peruvian steamed seafood stew, arroz con marisco, which is Peruvian-style seafood rice, and parihuela, a slow cooked mixed seafood and fish soup. As a vegetarian, I slightly panicked when I saw virtually no meatless options ::BY SHEILA JULSON listed on the menu, but La Serenata’s owner, who was doing triple duty on that slow weekday afternoon as also our server and chef, offered to make several enhile driving down Packard Avenue in Cudahy, it’s hard trées vegetarian. He suggested stir-fry (arroz chaufa) with vegetables, so I went with to miss La Serenata, a brightly painted periwinkle corner that ($8). My husband, an omnivore, was intrigued by Peruvian-Asian fusion, so he restaurant. The space hosted a number of corner taps over ordered the arroz chaufa de puerco, or pork stir-fry ($8). the years before being converted to La Serenata Mexican The owner/server/chef popped out of the kitchen a few minutes later to check restaurant. That business closed a few years ago and the space if, as a vegetarian, I could have fried eggs in my stir-fry. Despite the one-man operasat empty until reopening this past year under new managetion, our generous portions of food arrived a short time later. The green onions, ment, also under the name La Serenata, and also with Mexican bean sprouts and bok choy in the veggie stir-fry were cooked tender and retained fare. Just recently, La Serenata revamped its menu with an array their snap and flavor. The rice had well-balanced hints of soy sauce, garlic and of Peruvian cuisine. ginger. My husband praised his dish, noting that the pork was tender with a slight Appetizers include traditional papa a la smoky flavor. huancaina, yellow potatoes in a creamy sauce; A full-sized Formica-topped bar was a nice retro fit against or ceviche rocoto, featuring a Peruvian chili pepenergizing yellow walls, but the drink selection was minimal. per served with potatoes and corn. However, La Serenata Bottled beer was the only alcoholic beverage available. Nontucked into the sides menu along with French fries and white alcoholic options included Coke, Peruvian soda or chicha morada, 4978 S. Packard Ave. rice was fried yuca (not to be confused with the yucca plant), the a sweet Peruvian beverage made with fruit, sugar and purple 414-204-8973 | $$ tuberous root of the cassava plant. La Serenata serves its yuca corn, with a slight cinnamon flavor. But despite the current lack perfectly fried, not greasy, with a tasty seasoned house-made Handicapped access: No of drinks, La Serenata has good food, a friendly, accommodating dipping sauce simply referred to as “green” sauce. With hints of owner and unique Peruvian offerings not found at many other CC, RS cumin and Peruvian chili peppers, the creamy green sauce was restaurants. Hours: M-Sa a perfect complement to the yuca. A $3 portion was enough for 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. two people to snack on. La Serenata’s Arroz chaufa de puerco

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GREAT SUSHI LUNCH AT IZUMI’S The miso soup is brought to the table—and tea, if you order it. Otherwise, it’s up to you to pick and choose from the crowded buffet table. Izumi’s (2150 N. Prospect Ave.) also has an excellent lunch menu featuring bento boxes ($9.50-$12), udon/soba noodle soups ($7.50-$9.50) and full sushi/ sashimi dinners ($11-$25). But on a recent visit, we took the sample-it-all route by opting for the all-you-can-eat buffet ($15). And why not—with at least five varieties of sushi to choose from, selected by Izumi’s owner Fujiko Yamauchi? As manager of Milwaukee’s first sushi restaurant, the ’80s-era Koto, she has been instrumental in introducing the city to Japanese cuisine and has maintained a high level of dedication. Aside from sushi, the buffet also includes a variety of eye-catching meat and vegetable dishes. Housed inside a striking, historic Art Deco building, Izumi’s refurbished its airy (and very Japanese) dining room earlier this year, complete with a tatami room. The buffet and lunch menu is served 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. It will make you want to try dinner. (David Luhrssen) Izumi’s Bento Box and Sushi 14 | N O V E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 7

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COURTESY OF PRESS.

DININGOUT::EATDRINK

Bourbon Cherries and Vanilla Bean Mascarpone Waffle from Press.

Milwaukeeans Make True Belgian Liège Waffles ::BY SHEILA JULSON

ost people are familiar with the Brussels Belgian waffle, which is batter-based with deeper pockets and found everywhere from IHOP to fine dining establishments’ brunch menus. Then there are Belgian Liège waffles—smaller, crispy on the outside and made from sweeter, rich brioche egg dough that bakes light and stays slightly chewy when flipped off the waffle iron. Thanks to Press., a mobile food operation owned by Aaron Rosko and Emily Thomas, Milwaukeeans can try this unique European delicacy. Rosko first discovered the waffles when he was studying abroad in Belgium. “I didn’t know these Belgian Liège waffles existed until I lived there, and I practically lived off of them,” he

laughed, “but I couldn’t find them back home.” Rosko and Thomas met about 10 years ago when they both worked for Gracious Events catering. The two shared an interest in food and enjoyed discovering new things. Their paths crossed again when they worked together at Eppstein Uhen Architects, Thomas as an interior designer and Rosko in marketing. They tossed ideas around about food businesses to try on weekends. The Belgian Liège waffles seemed an ideal choice. During a testing stage, Thomas and Rosko invited friends and family to sample the waffles and provide ideas for toppings. “We let people do what they wanted with them, and that’s how we got some ideas for toppings,” Rosko said. With the stamp of approval from friends, fam-

ily and coworkers, Rosko and Thomas debuted Press. at the Tosa Farmers Market in 2015. They were also at the Shorewood Farmers Market that year, and they’ve since added the South Shore Farmers Market. They’ll be at the Milwaukee Winter Farmers Market on alternate weekends this season. Rosko said the waffles have been well received. Their original Belgian Liège waffles recipe dates back to the 1700s, and Rosko and Thomas added their own twist with elements from other recipes. The egg and butter brioche dough is yeasted, which adds more flavor complexity. The addition of pearl sugar caramelizes during baking, giving the waffles their crisp exterior. The flavor of Belgian Liège waffles can stand on its own, and it would almost be a shame to drown them in butter or syrup. Rosko said that in Belgium, Liège-style waffles are typically served with a dusting of powdered sugar. Press. customers can go that route, or choose from toppings such as lemon curd with blueberry compote, Nutella with whipped cream and strawberries or seasonal peaches with honey and Clock Shadow Creamery’s quark. Winter brings a topping of bourbon cherries with vanilla mascarpone. Rosko said Press. wants to provide not just tasty food, but a food experience. They purchased a 1962 Shasta Airflyte trailer from which to prepare and serve the waffles. “Food trucks are just so big and don’t really fit into the farmers market atmosphere, so we looked for a trailer,” he said. “I bought the Airflyte off of Craigslist and had it shipped here from Phoenix. It was a complete wreck when we got it!” With some TLC, the trailer was soon stylin’ and ready to roll, thanks to Rosko’s dad doing structural work. Thomas added her flair for design with an aqua-and-white color scheme, true to the original 1960s look. Press. partnered with Anodyne to create a coffee program. Press. also has an event planned with Third Space Brewing for the brewery’s next bottle release (9 a.m.-noon on Saturday, Dec. 9), as well as a few other collaborations in the works for winter. For more information, visit presswaffles.com.

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Eating the (Native) American Way ::BY DAVID LUHRSSEN Hamburgers are considered all-American but on a deeper level, what’s more American than the food eaten by the continent’s native peoples? In The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen, Pine Ridge-born chef Sean Sherman (with help from food writer Beth Dooley) goes back to the roots. He dispenses with fry bread, disdains such hybrids as “Indian tacos” and bans European imports from his kitchen. No wheat flour here—or dairy products, sugar, pork or beef. Instead, he offers deviled eggs flavored with sumac, tamales made with braised bison or smoked duck and hominy cakes. Some of the ingredients will be unfamiliar to most cooks, including sunchokes, a root native to North America that can be steamed or sautéed. What’s wrong with fry bread? It was the staple during the hungriest days on the reservation—a recipe for diabetes and tooth decay that he sees as a symbol of oppression.

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::SPORTS Packers vs. Bears: A Win is a Win ::BY PAUL NOONAN

he Chicago Bears are better than most people think, but theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not a good team. That said, they are legitimately good on defense, and the Green Bay Packers offense didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t embarrass itself for the first time since Brett Hundley took over. Hundley still needs to improve his decisionmaking, but he threw the ball well enough, especially down the field to Davante Adams, to give the team a chance. Packers fans can take some hope from this game (the Packers beat the Bears at Soldier Field by a score of 23-16), but if this team is going to make any real strides going forward, the defense is going to have to hang onto some balls.

Picks to Click The Packers havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t had a ton of takeaways this year, partially because interceptions are down league-wide as offenses take better care of the ball, partially because the Packers pass rush occasionally goes completely silent, and sometimes just because their defenders canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hang onto the ball. Blake Martinez and Kevin King should have each had a pick, and Damarious Randall likely would have had a picksix if not for a tipped ball at the line of scrimmage. It didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t matter this time as the Bear offense is built around a strong running game led by Jordan Howard, and the Packers limited him to 54 yards on 15 carries, but it will matter quite a bit over the next five games. Next week, the Packers face the Baltimore Ravens, who are a slightly more professional version of the Bears. They rely on good defense and a solid running game to overcome their incompetent passing attack led by footballâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most overpaid player, Joe Flacco. Flacco is one of the five most intercepted quarterbacks this season, averaging a pick on 3.44% of passes, and Flacco starts a run of Packers opponents with unusually careless quarterbacks.

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VISUALART|PREVIEW

Alphonse Mucha and the Princess of Tripoli ::BY TYLER FRIEDMAN

T VISUALART|REVIEW

‘KISMET’ and ‘GRAVITY’ TOGETHER at TORY FOLLIARD GALLERY ::BY KAT KNEEVERS

ason Rohlf’s paintings are abstract, yet conjure ideas of maps or stories. In the exhibition “Kismet,” on view at Tory Folliard Gallery, endless rings of circles, rows of arches, hanging diamonds and more play out in bright acrylic colors, sometimes painted on the relatively modest materials of shop rags or tarps. Why the ideas of maps or stories? While Rohlf’s work is filled with geometric shapes and lines, their hand-drawn quality retains an organic nature. Discreet splashes and spatters of paint throw forth an energy that keeps arrangements from getting stale and instead invests them with a state of liveliness. Mystic #3 glows with a bright pink backSHEPHERD EXPRESS

ground and waterfalls of curved lines in deep blue mingled with purple. Semicircular beads of lemon yellow and orange frame the top of the composition like a glistening curtain, but the painting’s surface treatment of aqua and white speckles, fallen like rain, add another layer. Given the mystical nature of the title, it is like searching through veils, with every level seeming both solid and gossamer at the same time. New sculptures by Jeremy Popelka in his exhibition “Gravity” are also on view, and it is a good pairing as his figurative pieces share this type of synthesis. Inspired by his recent time in Thailand, Popelka fashions masks out of glass, incorporating textured surfaces that reference symbolic concepts. Info Mask is one of the most striking, as a squarish red face with a dark, cavernous mouth is subtly decorated with text and letters. Machine Mask and Forest Mask bear the marks of hardware bits and sticks, respectively, that change and alter the surface of the figure into something totemic. Elegantly direct are his car sculptures, each cast and assembled in a way that their bright colors shine like confections. There is one in amber, another in red and a charming blue example simply titled Beater, which nonetheless looks in fine condition. While Rohlf and Popelka are showing new work, the gallery is also hosting a display of pieces by many other artists on their roster, offering an even larger sampling of art to view. Through Nov. 25 at Tory Folliard Gallery, 233 N. Milwaukee St. (clockwise from top) Jeremy Popelka, Red Car, Sandcast Glass Assembled, 7 x 18 x 3”; Jason Rohlf, Mystic #4, Acrylic on Canvas, 56 x 32”; Jason Rohlf, Mystic #3, Acrylic on Canvas, 56 x 32”; Jeremy Popelka, Forest Mask, Sandcast Glass, 13 x 9 x 5”

he lush, organic forms of Art Nouveau recall the opulence of la Belle Époque in Gay Paree. A delight in the decorative, an interest in the exotic and a fixation with pretty girls swathed in flowing neoclassical clothes all display the optimism of a society that had not yet glimpsed the horrors on the horizon as the 19th became the 20th century. Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) was one of the best-known artists of the era. “Alphonse Mucha: Art Nouveau,” at David Barnett Gallery through Jan. 13, 2018, exhibits work by the Czech artist, including doublesided color lithographs from a rare 1897 deluxe edition of “Ilsée Princesse de Tripoli.” Mucha’s work will be installed among and contextualized by illustrations by his peers featured in the Art Nouveau publication L’estampe Moderne. On Thursday, Nov. 16, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 18, 11 a.m.-noon, art historian and recent UWMilwaukee graduate Rachel Kreiter will give a gallery talk on Mucha and the story of the Princess of Tripoli.

Vet Night of the Arts

Wartburg Theatre | 2001 Alford Park Drive Vet Night of the Arts is committed to a view of the arts as serving both a therapeutic and an educative purpose. The second annual event is produced and performed by veterans and students who have prepared readings, multimedia presentations and visual art works to give the audience insight into the veteran experience and to generate dialogue about how to improve the difficult transition back into civilian life. Veterans at Carthage and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point will read essays and New York-based actor/activist Stephan Wolfert will present his one-man show CRY HAVOC!, which uses some of Shakespeare’s speeches to examine his six years in the Army and life after. Vet Night of the Arts takes place at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 16.

“A Road Traveled”

Union Art Gallery | 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd., UW-Milwaukee Union Campus Level W199 “A Road Traveled,” Nov. 17-Dec. 14, examines the way that technology has changed the way that we navigate the world. Jon Horvath’s Passages maps Jack Kerouac’s celebrated journey in On the Road onto the Wisconsin landscape using photography and GPS technology. Traveling to the location of geotagged tweets, Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman photograph their findings, lending concreteness to the impersonal words of social media. Joseph Mougel constructs new landscapes using 19th-century photographic technology and Google Maps. “A Road Traveled” opens with a reception from 5-8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 17. The artists will give talks beginning at 7 p.m. N O V E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 7 | 31

CHRIS WATT

A&E::BOOKS BOOK |PREVIEW

Bestselling ‘Ladies’ Detective Agency’ Author at Boswell Book Co. ::BY JENNI HERRICK

Alexander McCall Smith

recious Ramotswe, the esteemed proprietor of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, is Botswana’s premier female private investigator (as well as the country’s first and only madam sleuth). Since 1998, Precious has also been the crime-solving heroine in author Alexander McCall Smith’s bestselling series of 17 nov-

els. Told with wisdom and good humor, the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books follow Precious as she moves to the capital city of Gaborone, purchases an office for her new business, and begins solving cases in contemporary Africa that range from marital mysteries, wrongly accused suspects and mistaken identities. The series has been translated into more than 40 languages and has appeared on bestseller lists around the world. The newest title, The House of Unexpected Sisters, was published this November. Smith is a British author who was born in Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) in 1948 and served as a medical law professor at universities in the U.K. before turning his hand to writing. In his illustrious career, he has written and contributed to more than100 books including children’s literature, short story collections, bestselling novels and academic papers. Recently recognized by the National Arts Club of America with a Medal of Honor for Achievement in Literature, Smith will be at Boswell Book Co. at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 16.

NEW FROM VEGETARIAN ALCOHOLIC PRESS ::BY DAVID LUHRSSEN AND JENNI HERRICK

RICK SHAEFER THE REFUGEE TRILOGY

KIRSTEN LEENAARS (RE)HOUSING THE AMERICAN DREAM

A MESSAGE FROM THE FUTURE

THE WORLD TURNED

UPSIDE DOWN APOCALYPTIC IMAGERY IN ENGLAND, 1750–1850

ON VIEW OCTOBER 6, 2017 – JANUARY 14, 2018

COLLECTION SPOTLIGHT

JAMES ROSENQUIST HMA DNA COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS 32 | N O V E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 7

Free Admission | marquette.edu/haggerty

If print is dead, word hasn’t reached Vegetarian Alcoholic Press. The streetwise Milwaukee outfit has become a prolific publisher of poetry, especially (but not only) by younger writers. Milwaukee poet and artist Anja Notanja Sieger will celebrate the release of her Vegetarian Alcoholic title, Healers and Dealers of the Ultimate Truth, with a 7 p.m., Nov. 18 launch party at RedLine Gallery. This personal proclamation is filled with original post-it size drawings set alongside distinctive poetry excerpts. Also from Vegetarian Alcoholic is So What, a chapbook by Franklin K.R. Cline, a writer whose name might be familiar to Shepherd Express readers as a restaurant-bar critic. Buffalo wings and beer are mentioned—as are Milwaukee, household cats and, perhaps an underlying theme, “trying to avoid this dangerous culture of want.” He will read at 7p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 19, at Woodland Pattern Book Center. SHEPHERD EXPRESS

A&E::BOOKS

A&E::OFFTHECUFF

Art Saving Lives in Milwaukee through Photojournalism

::BY MEGAN LEONARD

BOOK |REVIEW

World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech

(PENGUIN PRESS), BY FRANKLIN FOER World Without Mind arrived just as Facebook, that universal enabler of narcissism, came under scrutiny for its role in undermining American democracy. Onetime Slate writer Franklin Foer authored his book after the election of Donald Trump (“we need more committed protectors of truth than the feckless gatekeepers at Facebook and Google”) but before the full revelations of Russian meddling. His focus isn’t the Kremlin but Silicon Valley, where he charges GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) with diminishing the potential for individualism, collapsing privacy and disrespecting authorship. They seek to monopolize not only commerce but consciousness. “They hope to automate the choices, both large and small, that we make as we float through the day.” Even the old-school media gatekeepers have been corrupted by the need for more clicks and competition; wacko ravings are aggregated alongside sober analysis as if there is no difference. The litany of digital problems spelled out in World Without Mind is alarming. (David Luhrssen) SHEPHERD EXPRESS

Who is Nick Hansen? I’m Nick Hansen, the artist, the MIAD [Milwukee Institute of Art and Design] grad, 30-something, who’s been doing art for a long time. I am behind the photojournalism of Art Saves Lives MKE but I am not solely a photo journalist. I paint murals, I illustrate and I have a repertoire of visual creative skills. I grew up in Milwaukee, on the edge of Bay View, with one parent, and poverty was something I could relate to. Art and sketchbooks were my thing. Art stopped me from doing the other stuff. I know how art can save lives because it saved my own life. I’m from what the phrase is: Art Saves Lives. How did Art Saves Lives MKE come to be? About a year ago I shifted my Facebook name to Art Saves Lives MKE and formulated the new website. I’m in transformation and transition. Last year I ended up buying a Nikon camera on Black Friday. It was post-Sherman Park and I thought, “How am I going to respond to this artistically? I have to buy this Nikon camera.” And I started taking pictures. These started with community murals with Tia Richardson who said, “It’s bigger than me or Heal the Hood.” I also met Dominic Inouye of Zip MKE, which was a strong impetus in showing me how photojournalism and art can change a community. Art Saves Lives MKE is about community and reflecting true stories of what art can do. What sparked your transition as a creative? During the years after getting out of MIAD, where I studied illustration and painting, I focused on automotive illustrations and paintings. In the past year, my work has shifted into more of a focus on education, art and activism. I’m also an art educator at Milwaukee Environmental Sciences Academy and I’ve just been struck by the community. I think the combination of getting away from Nick Hansen to Art Saves Lives MKE and Sherman Park was really important to me. All these years I’m doing this cool hot rod art, it just felt like it wasn’t having the passion and soul to tell stories that are really important. Nina Simone says, “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.” Hot rods are great and I could be a greaser until I’m 50 but how is that affecting anything? Especially when I’m so immersed in the urban black community.

What is the purpose of Art Saves Lives MKE? My goal was to take up this camera as an artist, an educator and a lover of the Afro-African American community. What I’ve seen as an art teacher are stories and beauties and truths. I feel like Milwaukee is two cities: one that’s on the lakefront and, on the other side of the interstate, it’s a whole other city. I work as a teacher in these cities. I enjoy them, I’ve seen a lot of beautiful families, but I now have a camera. I’m going to photojournalize. I’m using a camera to tell the stories of urban Milwaukee and the black community. What is your dream for Art Saves Lives MKE? My God-sized dream is to have a free physical space called “Creation Station” as an open arts studio where Art Saves Lives MKE has art materials for the black youth to paint or express. A professional role model would inspire and give slight direction to them to explore within the visual arts, no curriculum. I want to have an artistic visual safe haven where they can realize that doing this art is not just a craft but something that, if they express themselves wisely enough and get their imagination going enough, can save their lives. For more information, visit artsaveslivesmke.wordpress.com.

SHEPHERD STAFF

ilwaukee native Nick Hansen is creating photo journalistic work throughout the black community under the alias Art Saves Lives MKE. He preaches that art can be a bridge. He feels a calling to tell the stories of those that live in the urban space.

How does working in art education affect your work? As an educator, things aren’t perfect, Milwaukee’s not perfect, the education system isn’t perfect and I’m not perfect. Part of Art Saves Lives MKE is telling the positive stories of the urban black community and the beauty I see, but when I look at the politics of the education system it can be painful. This has helped me tell the stories in the work I’m creating.

Nick Hansen

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::HEARMEOUT ASK RUTHIE | UPCOMING EVENTS | PAUL MASTERSON

::ASKRUTHIE

Vote Now! VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE FINALIST!

Happy Hallowthanksmas!

t’s here! The snowy downhill slope into holiday madness that occurs once Halloween hits. I’m talking about Hallowthanksmas: the most frantic, festive and fabulous time of the year. Whether you love the holidays or loathe them, they are upon us and there’s no stopping them, doll face! Give in, dammit! Give in! Celebrate Hallowthanksmas with all the pitiful glory your little heart can muster. If you started the party with Halloween, keep it going. If you’re looking forward to autumnal craziness, it’s here! If you can’t wait for St. Nick, then get on the party train now, my friend. It’s Hallowthanksmas, and Milwaukee has plenty of events, shows and gatherings to ring in the good times. In fact, there is so much going this week in Brew Town, I’m going to forgo the advice portion of my column to tell you about the fantastically fun fests on my social calendar. Pencil in a good time and make it a Hallowthanksmas to remember.

::RUTHIE’SSOCALCALENDAR

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SAVE THE DATE!

BEST OF MILWAUKEE PARTY

JANUARY 16, 2018 POTAWATOMI HOTEL & CASINO

Nov. 15: Milwaukee-Area Coffee Connection at Adonai Employment (6767 W. Greenfield Ave., Suite 200): The Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce brings the coffee, you bring the conversation to this monthly get-together that brings likeminded business owners and professionals together. Network your rainbow-colored heart out from 8-9 a.m. during the free mix and mingle. Nov. 15: Wine Happy Hour at D.I.X. (739 S. First St.): Like wine? Like hotties? Like hotties who like wine? Then get your sweet ass to D.I.X.…the hottest spot in Walker’s Point. The 5-8 p.m. drink fest includes $5 wine flights and $6 glass pours. You’ll also find two-for-one specials on beer and rail cocktails. Let’s tip a few glasses back, folks! It’s Hallowthanksmas, after all. Nov. 16: ‘Cake by the Ocean’ Party at This Is It (418 E. Wells St.): Join the gang at this popular hangout because they’re letting it all hang out with a beach-themed party. Arrive at 8 p.m. where you’ll find swimsuits and beach balls a go-go. Undress to impress for the swimsuit contest as well as drink specials, drag queens and more. Can’t make the party? Then swing by for the “Dude Looks Like a Lady” Turnabout Party at 9 p.m. the night before. Nov. 17: Trans-Inclusive Swim Night at UW-Milwaukee Klotsche Center (3409 N. Downer Ave.): The team at the UWM LGBT Resource Center hosts this body-positive event for trans students and student allies. Enjoy the facilities without worry, make new friends and meet others who enjoy a healthy lifestyle. The doors are open 8-10 p.m. Nov. 17: Ladies Represent: DJ Battle & Dance Party at Wherehouse (818 S. Water St.): The team at the Milwaukee Pride’s Womnz Spot Lounge hosts this female DJ competition, featuring five of the city’s top spin-der-ellas. Performances by some of your favorite drag personalities round out the 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. contest, which is 21+ and includes a $10 cover charge.

Nov. 17: Derrick Barry at Hamburger Mary’s (730 S. Fifth St.): The internationally acclaimed Brittany Spears impersonator and RuPaul alumni sashays into Milwaukee to join the 9:30 p.m. drag show at Hamburger Mary’s. Tickets are needed to see the show, so swing by derrickbarrymarysmke.brownpapertickets.com for packages that range from $15 to $30, two of which include meet-andgreets with the sexy starlet. Check out the “It’s Brittany Bitch” party in Mary’s BeerCade bar after the show. Nov. 18: Opening Naughty or Nice Floral Show at Mitchell Park Domes (524 S. Layton Blvd.): Santa’s helpers invade the Domes in this delightful show that runs through Jan. 7, 2018. Don’t miss the opening day, featuring a 25-foot Christmas tree, Santa’s workshop and more. See county.milwaukee.gov/parks for hours and tickets. Nov. 18: Transgender Day of Remembrance at Milwaukee LGBT Community Center (1110 N. Market St.): Honor and celebrate those who lost their lives due to anti-transgender violence during this 6-8 p.m. event. Hosted by FORGE, the memorial is open to all community members and allies. Nov. 18: Ravyn’s Roast of Bryanna Banx$ at FIVE Nightclub (5 Applegate Court, Madison): Burn, baby burn! They’re roasting one of the state’s favorite performers in Mad City with a 9 p.m. 21+ comedy show. Don’t miss the fiery tongues of Bryanna’s “frien-emies” along with musical performances and drinks…all for a $5 door charge. Nov. 22: Patti’s Playhouse at The Cactus Club (2496 S. Wentworth Ave.): Party the night away with the return of a bash that keeps Brew City talking! The party includes a 10 p.m. show featuring more than a dozen stars of burlesque, magic, drag, music and more! Twirl the night away until bar close for a $5 cover charge. Want to share an event with Ruthie? Need her advice on a situation? Email DearRuthie@Shepex.com. Be sure to follow her Facebook (Ruthie Keester) and Twitter (@DearRuthie).

S HE P HE R D E X P R E S S .C OM / B OM PA RT Y

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SHEPHERD EXPRESS

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Transgender Awareness Week ::BY PAUL MASTERSON

ransgender Awareness Week began Nov. 13 and culminates with Transgender Day of Remembrance on Monday, Nov. 20. The weeklong event recognizes our transgender brothers and sisters through education and advocacy. It also honors trans victims of violence. 2017 has seen both victories and defeats in the realm of trans rights and equality. In a timely coincidence, last week’s midterm election brought eight trans individuals into political office. Among them, despite a voter suppression campaign, Danica Roem gained a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, defeating an anti-trans incumbent, a self-proclaimed “chief homophobe” and author of that state’s anti-trans bathroom bill. A trans woman of color, Andrea Jenkins, was elected to the Minneapolis City Council and was joined by Phillipe Cunningham after a run-off election. In Erie, Penn., a transman, Tyler Titus, was elected to the local school board. While their victories are significant, they were in progressive states. Still, they offered a positive shift to the relentless bad news for the LGBTQ community. Electing transgender candidates is not only critical in the struggle for equality but also gives hope that the tide of bigotry can be turned by a smart and engaged electorate. Hopefully, Roem’s election victory message, “Discrimination is a Disqualifier,” will endure to the 2018 election. But, speaking of discrimination, last week, Roy Moore, conservative Christian Republican candidate running in Alabama’s special senatoSHEPHERD EXPRESS

rial election, claimed, “The transgenders don’t have rights.” The next day he claimed he was innocent of sexual assault of a minor after his alleged victim spoke out after decades of silence. The hypocrisy is no surprise but reveals what the trans community is up against. That anti-trans trend has been gaining momentum since the presidential inauguration in January. Locally and nationally, Republican politicians have reinvigorated their strategies targeting trans rights. Aside from the presidential memorandum banning transgender people from serving in the armed forces (that’s currently blocked by a federal judge), Republicancontrolled states, like Wisconsin, are working to deny trans people access to health insurance and anti-discrimination protections. Arguably, this also increases their vulnerability to acts of violence. As of October 2017, 23 transgender lives have ended by violent acts related to their gender identity. Last year it was 27. According to Cream City Foundation and Marquette University Center for Gender and Sexuality Studies, 27% of trans people have reported denial of health care with another 70% reporting health care discrimination. They also experience discrimination in housing. Homelessness and income disparities are also high among trans people. Many of the transgender people I know are U.S. military veterans. Most actively contribute to the LGBTQ community and beyond, providing leadership and support for others, trans or otherwise. Many are parents, professionals, artists or activists. All are simply people going about their lives. Yet, for political gain, they’re targets and many live in fear. Milwaukee FORGE hosts a gathering for Transgender Day of Remembrance on Saturday, Nov. 18 at the LGBT Community Center. LGBT of Walworth County is holding a Candlelight Vigil on Monday, Nov. 20. Other events may be found online. In Madison, back on March 29, 21 Democratic state senators introduced a bill proclaiming Nov. 20, 2017, Transgender Day of Remembrance. It has yet to be scheduled for a vote.

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::MUSIC

For more MUSIC, log onto shepherdexpress.com

MELISSA LEE JOHNSON

FEATURE | ALBUM REVIEWS | CONCERT REVIEWS | LOCAL MUSIC

Telethon Go Big on Their Pop-Punk Magnum Opus ‘The Grand Spontanean’

::BY EVAN RYTLEWSKI

oo many great albums slip through the cracks because they don’t readily sell themselves, or they simply aren’t flashy enough. That shouldn’t be a problem, though, for The Grand Spontanean, the latest album from the Milwaukee pop-punk ensemble Telethon. It’s a mammoth, utterly audacious marathon of a record, a nearly 90-minute rock opera told across five acts and 30 tracks—featuring guest contributions from Laura Stevenson, Chris Farren of Fake Problems, Less Than Jake singer Roger Lima and The Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay. It includes interpolations of No Doubt and Carly Simon songs, a recitation of the Franz Kafka short story The Sudden Walk, several straight-up ska numbers and comes packaged with a 23-page playbill. And that’s all you need to know, really. If that all sounds like something that might be up your alley, it will be. The sheer scope and prodigiousness of the album is all that much more impressive given that it came from a band that hardly any local music fans have ever even heard of. Telethon, which has members spread across three cities but treats Milwaukee as its home base, began in Delavan—the small city in Walworth County that most southeastern Wisconsinites probably only think about when a weatherman warns there may be tornados in the area. “I think I wanted us to be kind of lo-fi, a little bit like Radiator Hospital or something,” singer-guitarist Kevin

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Tully says of the band’s beginnings. Some of his bandmates had other ideas. “I think it became a lot more classic rock than I originally planned, which isn’t necessarily what I was going for, but it’s what came about organically,” Tully says. “And we’ve started leaning into that a lot more now. We started embracing the fact that we have dual guitar leads, like Meatloaf.” There’s some precedent for a band primarily grounded in punk and indie-rock making a rock opera, the most prominent one being Titus Andronicus, a group that Telethon absolutely adores. Telethon had discussed the idea of making their own for years, though Tully admits he never took the idea as seriously as some of his bandmates. “I was always the one saying, ‘OK, we’ll think about it, but I really I was mentally shelving the idea,” he says. “Then one day we all watched the movie Poltergeist,

the original one, and we were just in awe of how cool it was. We got super wrapped up in the idea of doing this crazy, sci-fi horror story. We were like, ‘Why can’t an album do this?’ At that point I was getting tired of writing the same types of songs about the same types of things, so it was like, ‘Alright, I guess we’re making this huge concept album.’” Tully estimates it took them about a year to write The Grand Spontanean, which tells a tangent-heavy story about therapy, internet addiction and mass hysteria incited by a website prophesizing the end of the world. This might all sound like a little much, but part of the fun of the record is how The Grand Spontanean continually finds new ways to hold the listener’s attention—often by borrowing the unorthoTelethon dox narrative techniques of Thursday, expressionist masterworks Nov. 16, 8 p.m. like Ulysses and Berlin Alexanderplatz. Sabbatic Some of the album’s story is told through voiceovers and news clips. A chunk of the album, set in a bunker, introduces a fictional Telethon side project called “The Improbable New Sensations,” who punch out three quick ska-punk songs. And, for those who make it to the finish, the record closes with a choose-your-own-adventure twist, offering both a happy ending and a very unhappy one. Save for Franz Nicolay of The Hold Steady, who flew into the studio to lend additional keyboards and other instruments to the album (he also recites the Kafka story), the album’s marquee guests recorded their contributions remotely—including Laura Stevenson, who delivers a knockout performance on the duet “On Companionship.” “I think people might assume some of those musicians are on the record because they’re in our circle, but really it’s just because they’re nice people who responded to our email and were kind enough to contribute to our giant rock opera,” Tully says. “I’m still in awe that they did it. They’re heroes, and I don’t say that lightly. They’re on there because we love their music.” The last Wisconsin punk record with this kind of wow factor was Tenement’s 2015 double LP Predatory Headlights—a record that Tenement’s frontman, Amos Pitsch, spoke of as a bittersweet achievement—having invested three years on it only to see even their more appreciative fans and critics move on to the next thing shortly after they released it. The streaming era doesn’t necessarily reward these kinds of labors of love, but Tully says that, even if The Grand Spontanean doesn’t move the needle much, they’ll have no regrets. “Just the fact that we made it is amazing to us,” he says. “Not to toot our own horn, but we’re all so proud of it and just stunned that it was created. No matter what the reception is, or if anybody’s listening to it in a year, it’s going to always be a high point for us.” Telethon share a bill Thursday, Nov. 16 at Sabbatic with Live Tetherball Tonight and Bernie and the Wolf at 8 p.m.

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

MUSIC::LOCAL

KELLEN NORDSTROM

::CONCERTREVIEW

Jessica Lea Mayfield

Jessica Lea Mayfield Delivered a Prickly, Sobering Show at the Back Room

“T

::BY EVAN RYTLEWSKI

his is not my idea of fun,” Jessica Lea Mayfield sings early on her latest album, Sorry is Gone, and it’s a point she can’t stress enough: This isn’t the kind of record she ever imagined herself making. The twangy-voiced Ohio rocker spent several albums, including a couple recorded with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, honing her tough persona, only to reluctantly shed it on Sorry is Gone, an unflinching chronicle of her abusive marriage and the withdrawal she felt after leaving it. The songs are less about the specifics of her harrowing experiences—although she’s certainly not afraid to go there—as they are their ripple effect, and the ways survivorship reshapes your sense of self. As heavy as Sorry is Gone’s subject matter is, the music itself is so brisk and hooky that it’s sometimes possible to gloss over the very real pain at its core. Recorded with Dinosaur Jr. producer John Agnello, it’s a ripping homage to the buzzy, grungy alternative rock of the ’90s, and easily Mayfield’s most assured set of songs yet. Watching the singer and her three-piece band perform those songs one after another Friday night at the Back Room at Colectivo, though, only accentuated their sadness. Even one-liners that come across as droll in the studio landed with sobering impact. Like Mayfield’s idol Elliott Smith, who she paid tribute to on a 2015 covers album with Seth Avett, her songs are so convincing in their depiction of depression and alienation that you can’t help but feel genuinely worried for the singer who wrote them. Even Mayfield’s sharp-edged banter between songs—usually quick little jabs at the expense of her audience—did little to defuse the tension; they just further reinforced the perception of Mayfield as a wounded soul keeping the rest of the world at a distance. Throughout Sorry is Gone, Mayfield makes an important distinction: Being open about her abusive relationship doesn’t mean she wants to be seen as a victim. On “Bum Me Out,” one of the album’s tersest rockers, Mayfield preemptively refuses her audience’s pity. “I don’t need help, and I don’t want charity,” she sings, “I just want someone to be kind to me.” Playing for a silenced, half-full room Friday night, she found an admiring crowd more than happy to comply.

MinkTronics Present Poetry, Music, Love, Death (and Mink?)

::BY DAVID LUHRSSEN

harles P. Ries and the MinkTronics were brought together by a confluence of commonalities. Heading the list, as their name suggests, are shared experiences in a little-known rural Wisconsin industry: mink farming. Bassist Kevin Rautmann and guitarist-keyboardist Mark Truesdell used to work on a mink ranch in Mukwonago. Their frontman, poet Charles Ries, grew up on one near Sheboygan. But the business they have together isn’t about hats or stoles but performing (along with drummer Ron Baake) a set of songs that flow together like stanzas in a poem to suggest a larger story. Truesdell and Rautmann have been writing songs together since high school and performed together as an acoustic duo and in groups such as Umberto Vata—which recorded an album with fire buckets and chainsaws alongside conventional instruments. Encountering Ries, a published poet and storywriter with several books to his credit, was an opportunity to reinvent themselves as songwriters. “All these songs poured out of me from ages 16-22—and then my muse walked away,” Truesdell says. After they saw Ries read at Marquette University, the muse whispered in their ears: “collaborate.” “It took six-to-nine months before we got together,” Truesdell says. “Kevin and I spent a lifetime playing our songs; it was nice to apply elements of those songs as a framework for something new.” It wasn’t simply a matter of setting Ries’ words to existing Rautmann-Truesdell melodies but of “creating a new form,” Truesdell explains, “taking elements and ideas from old songs and applying them in a new way.” “I’m flashing back to the first time we got together with Charles,” Rautmann says. “He read a poem, and we thought, ‘should we make up music on the spot?’ But we had an old song of ours that fit the mood of that poem.” Eschewing faint Impressionism and self-absorption, Ries’ poems tell stories that condense experience into strongly incised phrases and sentences. Leonard Cohen might be the closest reference point. “Narrative poetry with music gives the audience more to hold on to—a poetry reading tends to be a one-note medium,” Ries says. “The music amplifies the story.” He adds that he’d never worked with musicians before. “I didn’t know what a chorus was or when to shut up and allow the musicians to play.” For the site of their next performance, Ries and the MinkTronics chose the historic Polish Falcon Hall. “We didn’t think it would work in a pure bar. We needed a performance venue,” Ries says. “When I was growing up, everything important was held in halls behind bars—weddings, baptisms. There aren’t many halls left.” Ries describes the themes running through the nine pieces on the program as “love-deathmink—they’re all tied to those ideas,” he says with a smile. As for the band’s sound, Truesdell explains, “You take the early Violent Femmes, put a sheen of jazz around it and a sheen of avant-garde improvisation around that—and then a sheen of the Everly Brothers around that.” Milwaukee jazz pianist Anthony Deutsch, performing as Father Sky (“my dad worked at a mink farm” he says, seriously) will open the performance. Also on the bill is Poets Monday MC Tim Kloss— perhaps the only performer that night with no ties to fur-bearing mammals. Charles P. Ries and The MinkTronics perform Saturday, Nov. 18, at Polish Falcon Hall, 801 E. Clarke St. Charles P. Ries and the MinkTronics

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

N O V E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 7 | 37

MUSIC::LISTINGS THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16

Amelia’s, Jackson Dordel Jazz Quintet (4pm) Angelo’s Piano Lounge, Acoustic Guitar Night Brewtown Eatery, One Lane Bridge Cactus Club, King Cardinal w/Vitrolum Republic & Cullah & the Comrades Caroline’s Jazz Club, Wicked Long Day Clarke Hotel (Waukesha), Ginni & JoAnna Marie (6:30pm) County Clare Irish Inn & Pub, Acoustic Irish Folk w/Barry Dodd Frank’s Power Plant, King Eye & The Squirts w/Brain-Bats & Fret Rattles Jazz Estate, Bayles/Sommers/Johnson Trio Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, Songwriter’s Anonymous Milwaukee CD release Mason Street Grill, Mark Thierfelder Jazz Trio (5:30pm) Miller Time Pub, Joe Kadlec Miramar Theatre, San Holo w/Just A Gent & Droeloe (ages 17-plus, 9pm) Nice Ash Cigar Bar (Waukesha), The Jude - Acoustic Rock O’Donoghues Irish Pub (Elm Grove), The All-Star SUPERband (6pm) Pabst Theater, Lupe Fiasco Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: Dave Wacker Duo (8pm), In the Fire Pit: Liam Ford Band (8:30pm) Shank Hall, Consider the Source w/District 97 The Bay Restaurant, Funky Chemist The Packing House Restaurant, Barbara Stephan & Peter Mac (6pm) Transfer Pizzeria Cafe, Martini Jazz Lounge Up & Under Pub, A No Vacancy Comedy Open Mic

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17

Alley Cat Lounge (Five O’Clock Steakhouse), Rafael Mendez & The Fabulous House Rockers American Legion of Okauchee #399, Back Draft Angelo’s Piano Lounge, Piano Night Anodyne Coffee (Walker’s Point), Mike Mangione & The Kin CD release show Art Bar, Jonny T-Bird & Big Dad Cactus Club, MELT and Speaker Kreatures present: Seducer, Idiom, Demix, std: DEV,TSC & Eye Doctor Cafe Carpe (Fort Atkinson), Satchel Paige Welch & Kai Welch Circle-A Cafe, Alive at Eight: Lack Of Reason w/Certain Stars (8pm); DJ: Daniel James (10pm) Clarke Hotel (Waukesha), Dick Eliot Jazz Guitar (6pm) Colectivo Coffee (On Prospect), The Deslondes w/Twain & Buffalo Gospel ComedySportz Milwaukee, ComedySportz Milwaukee! Company Brewing, HEAR HERE: The Bang Bang CD release) w/ Tigernite & Ako County Clare Irish Inn & Pub, Traditional Irish Ceilidh Session Frank’s Power Plant, Open Ceilings w/Sleepersound & Treesreach Good City Hall, The War on Drugs w/Dramatic Lovers Iron Mike’s (Franklin), Jam Session w/Steve Nitros & Friends Jazz Estate, Paul Silbergleit Trio (8pm), Late Night Session: Elias Holman Latin Trio (11:30pm) Jokerz Comedy Club, Spanky Brown Lakefront Brewery Beer Hall, Brewhaus Polka Kings (5:30pm)

Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, Dr. Chow’s Love Medicine (final show) w/Voot Warnings Los Mariachis Mexican Restaurant, The Jammers Mamie’s, The Incorruptibles Mason Street Grill, Phil Seed Trio (6pm) McAuliffe’s Pub (Racine), Rock For Relief w/Resistance, Eponymous, Meade Ave, The Beat Seekers & The Dirty Front Milwaukee Ale House, Paul Rebek (6pm), The Fighting Fish (9:30pm) Miramar Theatre, The Werks w/EGi. (all-ages, 9pm) Orson’s Saloon (Cudahy), Open Mic Cudahy Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: 3D (9pm), In the Fire Pit: The WhiskeyBelles (9pm) Potbelly Sandwich Shop (East Side), Texas Dave (noon) Riverside Theater, St. Vincent Route 20 Outhouse (Sturtevant), Cherry Pie Shank Hall, The Steepwater Band w/Them Vibes South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center, Ex Fabula: Risking It Tally’s Tap & Eatery (Waukesha), Tomm Lehnigk The Bay Restaurant, Harold Stewart & Friends The Lakeside Supper Club & Lounge (Oconomowoc), 5 Card Studs The Packing House Restaurant, Donna Woodall Trio (6:30pm) The Tap Room (South Milwaukee), Mera Storm Turner Hall Ballroom, Chris Robinson Brotherhood Up & Under Pub, Young Revelators w/The Traveling Suitcase

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18

American Legion Post #449 (Brookfield), Our House Angelo’s Piano Lounge, Piano Night Anodyne Coffee (Walker’s Point), Charles Walker Band w/Porky’s Groove Machine Art Bar, Mississippi Jake Cactus Club, Post Animal w/Porter I Hardly Know Her Circle-A Cafe, Alive at Eight: Bootleg Bessie (8pm); DJ: WarLock (10pm) Colectivo Coffee (On Prospect), All Them Witches w/King Buffalo ComedySportz Milwaukee, Laughing Liberally Milwaukee Conway’s Smokin’ Bar & Grill, Texas Dave Trio w/James Redding & Friends Crush Wine Bar (Waukesha), Dave Miller Duo w/Hal Miller & Mike Cascio Cue Club of Wisconsin (Waukesha), Detour Five O’Clock Steakhouse, Rafael Mendez Frank’s Power Plant, The Rockin’Scene’s Benefit for Matt-the-Ratt: Uptown Savages reunion, JP Cyr & The Midnightmen, Brian Smith of God’s Outlaw, Fairville Renegades & DJ Billy Boy Brad Harry’s on Brady, 5 Card Studs Hilton Milwaukee City Center, Vocals & Keys Jazz Estate, Benny Benack III Quartet (8pm), Late Night Session: Lockjaw Trio (11:30pm) Jokerz Comedy Club, Spanky Brown Knights of Columbus (West Allis), Elvis & Blue Suede Shoes Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall, Honky Tonkitis along w/Dan Whitaker and the Shinebenders Kuhtz General Store (Oconomowoc), Jonny T-Bird & the MPs Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, Funk Summit Bass Team video shoot/ recording party Los Mariachis Mexican Restaurant, Eddie Butts Band

11/16 Mike Mangione 11/23 No 414 Live because of Thanksgiving 38 | N O V E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 7

::ALBUMS Mason Street Grill, Jonathan Wade Trio (6pm) Mezcalero Restaurant, Deer Hunter’s Widow Ball w/ScaTTered Milwaukee Ale House, Stage Hoggs Miramar Theatre, MAX w/Rozes & AM!R (all-ages, 9pm) MugZ’s Pub and Grill (Muskego), Open Jam w/host Potter’s Field Orson’s Saloon (Cudahy), City Boy Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: The Acoustix Rave / Eagles Club, Galantis w/The Him (all-ages, 8pm) Roma’s Ristorante & Lounge (East Troy), Rebecca and the Grey Notes Route 20 Outhouse (Sturtevant), Bella Cain Shank Hall, Think Floyd USA Silver Spring House, Rick Holmes Smith Bros. Coffee House (Port Washington), Embedded Reporter Stolley’s Hogg Alley (Oconomowoc), Joe Kadlec The Coffee House, Curt Joa w/JP Spencer & Ives Iverson The Packing House Restaurant, Lem Banks with Jeff Stoll, Alvin Turner & Omar (6:30pm) Up & Under Pub, Staff

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 19

Angelo’s Piano Lounge, Live Karaoke w/ Julie Brandenburg Circle-A Cafe, Alive at Eight: R3id (8pm); DJ: John Riepenhoff & Sara Caron (10pm) Dopp’s Bar & Grill, CCMC Open Jam w/Sure Thing (4pm) Iron Mike’s (Franklin), Jammin’ Jimmy Open Jam (3pm) Jeanie Dean Studio Central, Milwaukee Annual JFK Tribute Riverside Theater, My Brother My Brother and Me Live Podcast Rounding Third Bar and Grill, The Dangerously Strong Comedy Open Mic Turner Hall Ballroom, Hippo Campus w/Remo Drive

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20

Cactus Club, Negative Approach w/Assault & Battery, and Law/less Jazz Estate, Latin Jam Session Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, Poet’s Monday w/host Timothy Kloss & featured reader Kazimiera (7:30-10:30pm) Mason Street Grill, Joel Burt Duo (5:30pm) Paulie’s Pub and Eatery, Open Jam w/Christopher John Shank Hall, The Security Project Turner Hall Ballroom, Leela James X TANK

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21

Frank’s Power Plant, Duck and Cover Comedy Open Mic Jazz Estate, Funk Night with Angie Swan Mamie’s, Open Blues Jam w/Marvelous Mack Mason Street Grill, Jamie Breiwick Group (5:30pm) McAuliffe’s Pub (Racine), Parkside Reunion Big Band Miramar Theatre, Tuesday Open Mic w/host Sandy Weisto (sign-up 7:30pm) Rave / Eagles Club, Silverstein w/Seaway, Cedar Green & Human After All (all-ages, 7:30pm) The Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts, Jazz Jam Session Transfer Pizzeria Cafe, Jerry Grillo Band Turner Hall Ballroom, The English Beat w/Something To Do

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 22

Cactus Club, Patti’s Playhouse Returns! Cafe Carpe (Fort Atkinson), Irish Session Conway’s Smokin’ Bar & Grill, Open Jam w/Big Wisconsin Johnson Cue Club of Wisconsin (Waukesha), Road Crew Frank’s Power Plant, Black Wednesday Punk Show: Population Control, Law/Less & Zör Iron Mike’s (Franklin), Danny Wendt Open Jam (6pm) Jazz Estate, Barry Velleman Trio Jokerz Comedy Club, Chris Barnes Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall, Polka Open Jam Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, 19th Annual “Nod to Bob” Dylan Tribute to benefit Hunger Task Force w/many performers Mason Street Grill, Jamie Breiwick Group (5:30pm) Morton’s (Cedarburg), The Blues Disciples (6:30pm) MugZ’s Pub and Grill (Muskego), Blackout Wednesday w/Debacle Nomad World Pub, Locals Only Paulie’s Field Trip, Humpday Jam w/Dave Wacker & Mitch Cooper Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In the Fire Pit: Crossfire Potbelly Sandwich Shop (East Side), Texas Dave (noon) Route 20 Outhouse (Sturtevant), Take Me w/Identity Crisis Shank Hall, Spiders From Milwaukee (Bowie tribute) w/Headknocker (Foreigner tribute) Tally’s Tap & Eatery (Waukesha), Tomm Lehnigk The Packing House Restaurant, Carmen Nickerson & Theo Merriweather (6pm) The Patio (Port Washington), Vinyl Groove The Tap Room (South Milwaukee), Dog House Charlie Trinity Three Irish Pubs, Dan Harvey Turner Hall Ballroom, U2 Zoo Plays “The Joshua Tree” w/The First Wave

Shelby Lynne & Allison Moorer

Not Dark Yet (SILVER CROSS) The lateness of this first, yet seemingly natural collaboration of sister singer-songwriters carries old, heavy freight. Both witnessed their father kill their mother, then himself, in the backwoods of Alabama. Decades later, finally realized, Not Dark Yet reveals both as artists mature enough to transmute tragedy into a broad array of poignant expression. They elide strict autobiography with a brilliant selection of covers of other singer-songwriters, save one song by Lynne. The title song, among Bob Dylan’s best late-period creations, has offhanded depth, a philosophic recognition of darkness’ inevitability in life. Here and elsewhere, their voices’ bloodmatched closeness plumbs their souls and touches us. They obliquely approach their parental loss in Townes Van Zandt’s chilling “Lungs,” uttered from the strangely elevated viewpoint of a person dying of lung cancer: “Jesus was an only son and love his only concept / strangers cry in foreign tongues and dirty up the doorstep.” Amid songs by Merle Haggard, Jason Isbell and others, a deftly layered spirituality dwells in this album, an acceptance of the larger mysteries. And yet, such fathomless beauty and tenderness carries through their lovely, life-worn voices that we feel them, not merely as orphans, but as women artists who have lived, lost and learned. —Kevin Lynch

Guy Mendilow Ensemble Music From the Forgotten Kingdom

With The Forgotten Kingdom, multi-instrumentalist/composer Guy Mendilow assembled a touring show from the half-lost music of Sephardic Jews from the Balkans. Working with traditional songs sung in Ladino, the Spanish-rooted language of the Sephardim, Mendilow recast them into forms that respect the past and are comfortable in the present. The powerfully emotive voice of Sofia Tosello is the through-line connecting songs whose moody arrangements include guitar and electric bass along with traditional Levantine string instruments. She would sound good in duet with Dead Can Dance’s Lisa Gerrard. —David Luhrssen SHEPHERD EXPRESS

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Meet Dodger, a big guy who knows how to have fun! Dodger is an 11-month-old, mixed breed dog, available at the Wisconsin Humane Society Milwaukee Campus. If you consider yourself to be outgoing, energetic, and tenacious with a knack for dog training, Dodger may be your man. If you would like more information about Dodger, please call 414-ANIMALS or stop in today!

Teweles Seed Tower Location, Location, Location 1, 2 & 3BR, many w/2BA Market & Affordable Rates Available Industrial Chic Design! 888-TEWELES (888-839-3537) Exceptional, Furnished Studios OPEN HOUSE EVERY SAT & SUN 11am - 12pm. Five Stars. Located in trendy Walkers Point. Extra Clean. Shared bath and kitchen. Smoke Free. On Bus Line. Weekly rent starts at $95 plus sec. dep. Utilities incl. 703 S 5th St. 414-384-2428 OR 414-722-8418. 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.

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TOPByCHEF James Barrick

THEME CROSSWORD

PSYCHO SUDOKU! “Kaidoku”

Each of the 26 letters of the alphabet is represented in this grid by a number between 1 and 26. Using letter frequency, word-pattern recognition, and the numbers as your guides, fill in the grid with well-known English words (HINT: since a Q is always followed by a U, try hunting down the Q first). Only lowercase, unhyphenated words are allowed in kaidoku, so you won’t see anything like STOCKHOLM or LONG-LOST in here (but you might see AFGHAN, since it has an uncapitalized meaning, too). Now stop wasting my precious time and SOLVE! psychosudoku@gmail.com 4

22 10

12 26

73. The peanut 74. Wandering 76. Charged particle 77. Eliminate (with “out”) 78. Implied 79. Fortune 80. Made known 81. Peak: Prefix 82. Projecting window 83. Old pronoun 85. Way 86. Part 4 of quip: 3 wds. 89. Ill-fated 90. Vittles 91. — Haute 92. Pack animal 93. Big hit 96. Ledger entry 97. Fit for the market: Var. 101. Inferior writer of verse 104. End of the quip: 5 wds. 106. Joss 107. Intoxicating drink 108. George or T.S. 109. Olive genus 110. Hawaiian goose 111. Merino 112. Begets 113. What remains DOWN 1. Increase 2. A mountain nymph 3. “When — — Loves a Woman” 4. Long-gone returnee 5. Highlight 6. Disposed 7. Basis 8. Sign 9. West Indies’ — Islands 10. Priest’s home

11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 23. 24. 26. 29. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 44. 48. 49. 50. 52. 53. 55. 57. 59. 60.

Bouncy quality Vestment — -impressionism Bet one’s winnings Succulent plant Lump Tractable Send packing Peachy One of the Flintstones Caviar Deemed Paul Bunyan, e.g. About: 2 wds. Bid Frosty Repossession type Timbre Fiber plant Harmful Tuned in or wise to Oman neighbor Sculptured trunk Macroscopic Spunk Rub harshly Line dance Kind of punch Banquet Colored faintly Novice reporter Goose: Var.

63. Cherry picker 64. Baled material 65. Doggy 66. Political events 67. One-sided 68. Costly fur 70. — -face (reversal) 71. Settled 73. Cripples 75. Discarded portion 78. Hurry 80. Bullring figure 82. Missouri River city 83. Shinto gate 84. Goes apace 85. Crowned head 87. Settle comfortably 88. Johnny — 89. Facets 92. Tropical tree 93. Pirouette 94. Variety 95. Long, long time 96. Test-drive vehicle 97. Commotion 98. Tree trunk 99. Fabrications 100. Coup d’— 102. Dir. letters 103. Besides 105. Man in Belize

6 18 20

23 11

26 4

26 12

7 4

11 24

10 22

6 15

26 2

22 10

15 7

26 5

17 26

11 8

11/9 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 25 letters left over. They spell out the alternative theme of the puzzle.

Aural Delights Solution: 25 Letters

ACROSS 1. Appurtenances 5. Time of year 10. Ground or game 14. Agreement 18. Culmination 19. Wizened old woman 20. Anger 21. — prima 22. Start of a quip by Tom Cruise: 3 wds. 25. Leeway: 2 wds. 27. Source of disappointment 28. Sausage 30. — - — -France 31. Muses’ number 32. Marley of “A Christmas Carol” 33. — monster 35. Matter- — - — 38. Part 2 of quip: 4 wds. 43. Facade 44. Hot drink with liquor 45. Papal crown 46. Farm animal 47. Garrison 48. Protracted 49. Kind of feudal lord 50. Glitter rock 51. “Able was I —...” 52. Profession 54. Quod — demonstrandum 55. “— Jacques” 56. Clerics 58. Metrical foot 60. Shaped with a hammer 61. Jargon 62. Part 3 of quip 63. Beat-up car 64. Freeloader 66. Barney of Bedrock 69. Rainy-day fund 72. Puccini work

Solution to last week’s puzzle

Alto sax Anvil Bass Bell Bin Bombard Bones Bugle Chang Cheng Crwth Cymbal Deagan

Drone Drum Dulcimer Euphonium Fiddle Fife Five string banjo Flageolet Gong Hammond organ Harp

Hornpipe Interval Lute Lyre Oboe Sitar Tabor Tempo Tom-tom Tuba Tune Violin Zither

11/9 Solution: Visiting Armidale and Tamworth

40 | N O V E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 7

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

Solution: Music can make people happier

Creators Syndicate

Date: 11/16/17

::NEWS OF THE WEIRD

::FREEWILLASTROLOGY ::BY ROB BREZSNY SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”— Charles H. Duell, Director of the U.S. Patent Office, 1899. “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” —Lord Kelvin, President, Royal Society, 1895. “All the music that can be written has already been written. We’re just repeating the past.” —19thcentury composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. “Video won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” —filmmaker Darryl F. Zanuck, commenting on television in 1946. I hope I’ve provided enough evidence to convince you to be faithful to your innovative ideas, Scorpio. Don’t let skeptics or conventional thinkers waylay you. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Of all the signs in the zodiac, you Sagittarians are most likely to buy a lottery ticket that has the winning numbers. But you’re also more likely than everyone else to throw the ticket in a drawer and forget about it, or else leave it in your jeans when you do the laundry, rendering the ticket unreadable. Please don’t be like that in the coming weeks. Make sure you do what’s necessary to fully cash in on the good fortune that life will be making available. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In the game of basketball, if a player is fouled by a member of the opposing team, he is given a “free throw.” While standing 15 feet away, he takes a leisurely shot at the basket without having to deal with any defenders. Studies show that a player is most likely to succeed at this task if he shoots the ball underhanded. Yet virtually no professionals ever do this. Why? Because it doesn’t look cool. Everyone opts to shoot free throws overhand, even though it’s not as effective a technique. Weird! Let’s invoke this as a metaphor for your life in the coming weeks, Capricorn. In my astrological opinion, you’ll be more likely to accomplish good and useful things if you’re willing to look uncool. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In 1991, Aquarius rock star Axl Rose recorded the song “November Rain” with his band Guns N’ Roses. It had taken him eight years to compose it. Before it was finally ready for prime time, he had to whittle it down from an 18-minute-long epic to a more succinct nine-minute ballad. I see the coming weeks as a time when you should strive to complete work on your personal equivalent of Axl’s opus. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Thomas Edison was a prolific inventor whose work led to the creation of electric lights, recorded music, movies and much more. When he was 49 years old, he met Henry Ford, a younger innovator who was at the beginning of his illustrious career. Ford told Edison about his hopes to develop and manufacture low-cost automobiles, and the older man responded with an emphatic endorsement. Ford later said this was the first time anyone had given him any encouragement. Edison’s approval “was worth worlds” to him. I predict, Pisces, that you will receive comparable inspiration from a mentor or guide or teacher in the next nine months. Be on the lookout for that person. ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Many people go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after,” observed Henry David Thoreau. The spirit of Thoreau’s observation is true about every one of us to some extent. From time to time, we all try to satisfy our desires in the wrong location, with the wrong tools and with the wrong people. But I’m happy to announce that his epigram is less true for you now than it has ever been. In the coming months, you will have an unusually good chance to know exactly what you want, be in the right place at the right time to get it, and still want it after you get it. And it all starts now. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I predict that during the next 10 months, you will generate personal power and good fortune as you ripen your skills at creating interesting forms of intimacy. Get started! Here are some tips to keep in mind. 1. All relationships have problems. Every single one, no exceptions! So you should cultivate relationships that bring you useful and educational problems. 2. Be very clear about the qualities you do and don’t want at the core of your most important

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alliances. 3. Were there past events that still obstruct you from weaving the kind of togetherness that’s really good for you? Use your imagination to put those events behind you forever. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You may be entertaining an internal dialogue that sounds something like this: “I need a clear yes or a definitive no…a tender revelation or a radical revolution…a lesson in love or a cleansing sex marathon—but I’m not sure which! Should I descend or ascend? Plunge deeper down, all the way to the bottom? Or zip higher up, in a heedless flight into the wide-open spaces? Would I be happier in the poignant embrace of an intense commitment or in the wild frontier where none of the old rules can follow me? I can’t decide! I don’t know which part of my mind I should trust!” If you do hear those thoughts in your brain, Gemini, here’s my advice: There’s no rush to decide. What’s healthiest for your soul is to bask in the uncertainty for a while. CANCER (June 21-July 22): According to storyteller Michael Meade, ancient Celtic culture believed that “a person was born through three forces: the coming together of the mother and father, an ancestral spirit’s wish to be reborn, and the involvement of a god or goddess.” Even if you don’t think that’s literally true, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to have fun fantasizing it is. That’s because you’re in a phase when contemplating your origins can invigorate your spiritual health and attract good fortune into your life. So start with the Celtic theory, and go on from there. Which of your ancestors may have sought to live again through you? Which deity might have had a vested interest in you being born? What did you come to this earth to accomplish? Which of your innate potentials have you yet to fully develop, and what can you do to further develop them? LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I predict that starting today and during the next 10 months, you will learn more about treating yourself kindly and making yourself happy than you have in years. You will mostly steer clear of the mindset that regards life as a numbing struggle for mere survival. You will regularly dream up creative ideas about how to have more fun while attending to the mundane tasks in your daily rhythm. Here’s the question I hope you will ask yourself every morning for the next 299 days: “How can I love myself with devotion and ingenuity?” VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): This may be the most miscellaneous horoscope I’ve ever created for you. That’s apropos, given the fact that you’re a multifaceted quick-change artist these days. Here’s your sweet mess of oracles. 1. If the triumph you seek isn’t humbling, it’s not the right triumph. 2. You may have an odd impulse to reclaim or recoup something that you have not in fact lost. 3. Before transmutation is possible, you must pay a debt. 4. Don’t be held captive by your beliefs. 5. If you’re given a choice between profane and sacred love, choose sacred. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The next 10 months will be an ideal time to revise and revamp your approach to education. To take maximum advantage of the potentials, create a master plan to get the training and knowledge you’ll need to thrive for years to come. At first, it may be a challenge to acknowledge that you have a lot more to learn. The comfort-loving part of your nature may be resistant to contemplating the hard work it will require to expand your worldview and enhance your skills. But once you get started, you’ll quickly find the process becoming easier and more pleasurable. Homework: Is there a belief you know you should live without, but don’t yet have the courage to leave behind? 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 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.

::BY THE EDITORS OF ANDREWS MCMEEL

Playing Opossum?

presumably humiliated opossum “ran off” in late October after three Pennsylvania men posted photos on social media of themselves giving it beer and kissing it. The Pennsylvania State Game Commission was unamused by the antics of Michael Tice, 18, of Newport; David Snook, 19, of Reedsville; and Morgan Ehrenzeller, 20, of McAlisterville. They’ve been charged with “unlawful possession of wildlife and disturbing wildlife.” According to TribLive, Tice “kissed and held the animal while Snook poured beer on its head and into its mouth.” The men couldn’t be reached for comment.

Does it include the Samurai Sword? The Stardust Ranch in Rainbow Valley, Ariz., has a lot to offer potential buyers. Just an hour west of Phoenix, the property boasts a 3,500-square-foot home with a pool, 10 acres, barns, a gated entry...and two portals to another dimension—one at the back of the property, and one in the fireplace. Owner John Edmonds and his wife bought the property (now listed at $5 million) 20 years ago to run a horse rescue, but he says he’s killed more than a dozen extraterrestrials on the property—using a samurai sword—and has suffered many injuries in his encounters with them. Edmonds told KPNX-TV last month that aliens tried to abduct his wife. “They actually levitated her out of the bed in the master chamber and carried her into the parking lot and tried to draw her up into the craft.”

Those Randy Rabbits

In Darmstadt, Germany, police detained a 19-year-old man on Nov. 7 after they noticed “a significant bulge in his trousers” and discovered he was carrying a python in his pants. The unnamed man was carrying on a loud, drunken argument with another man when police were called, reported The Guardian. Officers took the man (and the snake) to the police station, where the latter was put in a box. Authorities are considering whether the “non-species-appropriate transport” could be a violation of animal protection laws.

Poland has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe, so the Polish Health Ministry is using the example of rabbits to encourage its citizens to multiply. The ministry produced a short video with a “rabbit narrator” who explains that members of the Leporidae family enjoy exercise, a healthy diet and little stress. “If you ever want to be a parent, follow the example of rabbits,” the video suggests. The ministry said in a statement to the Associated Press in early November that it was looking for a way to increase public awareness about the low birth rate that “did not offend anyone and was not vulgar.”

Ya Think?

Traditional or Extra Weird?

A family of three was abducted from their home and forced into a car on Nov. 7 in Alberta, Canada—by five naked people. The man, who was placed in the trunk, quickly escaped, and his wife and child also managed to get away, according to The Canadian Press. A passing truck driver picked up the three victims, but then the naked kidnappers’ car rammed his truck from behind, sending it into a ditch. Royal Canadian Mounted Police caught up with the criminals; of the five, two were minors and were not charged. The adults faced charges of kidnapping and resisting arrest. The RCMP gave no explanation for why the five kidnappers were naked, but posited that drugs and/or alcohol might have been involved.

In case simply eating fried chicken isn’t enough for Kentucky Fried Chicken fans in Japan, Twitter users there have an opportunity to luxuriate in the very essence of one of 100 KFC “bath bombs;” that is, bath salts infused with the famous KFC “11 herbs and spices.” KFC tells United Press International that the limited edition bath bombs won’t be sold in stores—but people who retweet the chain’s promotional post will be entered to win one.

Python in Pants? Check.

N O V E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 7 | 41

THEBACK::ARTFORART’SSAKE

Got To Be Fruitcake Weather ::BY ART KUMBALEK

’m Art Kumbalek and man oh man manischewitz what a world, ain’a? So here we go, a reoccurring dream, that it’s a Tuesday morning and I’m feeling like I got hit by a train sometime during the night, which causes me to believe that I may not have enough smoke up my ass to blow out a fully formed essay for you’s this week, I kid you not. And I’m trying to remember what the heck happened that I should feel the way I feel. Cripes, I don’t remember any tracks; I don’t remember any whistles; I don’t remember any bells; I don’t remember any swinging lanterns, any crossing signals; so, what the fock. What I do remember is parking my butt on a stool smack-dab barside over by the Uptowner tavern/ charm school. I remember Little Jimmy Iodine asking how long it would be until a big-time disaster movie called November, 2016 would hit the theaters. I remember Ernie saying that since children of any age can now carry a gun whilst hunting in our Dairy Land’s glens and dales, it’s got to be only a matter of time ’til they can pack one with their lunch and take it to school for protection purposes. And then I remember somebody asking this

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question: “If a man says something in the middle of the woods and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?”— which reminded me of a little story: So these two older ladies were having their breakfast at Webb’s one morning. Norma notices something odd about Mabel’s ear and says, “Mabel, do you know you’ve got a suppository sticking out of your left ear?” Mabel says, “What?” So Norma repeats the question: “MABEL, DO YOU KNOW YOU’VE GOT A SUPPOSITORY STICKING OUT OF YOUR LEFT EAR?” Mabel says, “I have a suppository in my ear?” She pulls it out, stares at it and says, “Good heavens, Norma, I’m glad you noticed this thing. It gives me a gosh darn good idea where to find my hearing aid.” Ba-ding! I forget which one of us knobs asked the question— “If a man says something in the middle of the woods …” blah-blah-blah—but I do remember then a heated debate that nearly came to rationality broke out. Herbie was the most concise of the group: “Listen you focksticks, whatever it is that this focking guy in the woods might say, you can bet your buck two-eighty that you’ll never hear him say, ‘Let’s watch Oprah.’ You’ll never him say, ‘Yeah, I was hoping my motherin-law could’ve stayed over longer.’ And you’ll never hear him say, ‘Hon, do you think this condom makes me look fat?’” I think I remember that I pretty much stayed out of the discussion—metaphysics was never my strong suit. I’m more of a quantum mechanics guy who likes to wonder about all the invisible stuff in the universe we haven’t discovered yet, stuff that had it been specifically mentioned in the Bible could definitely be of use in this day and age. Yeah yeah, that goddamn Bible. Hey, I like a story about casting stones at whores or sacrificing barnyard animals as much as the next guy, but a little Lordly

help with quantum electrodynamics would’ve been nice—especially the part that offers up the perhaps dire possibility that the universe we seem to be part of right now could disappear with all of us in it in a split second and we wouldn’t even know it ’cause some kind of unseen vacuums could flip around in a blink of the eye, focking-A. This discussion meandered a tad, and then Julius proposed a toast to the poet Dylan Thomas, who died 64 years ago the other day, and who sometime said: An alcoholic is someone you don’t like who drinks as much as you do. Then Ray took the bait and became Captain Cat, the old blind sea captain from the poet’s great work, Under Milk Wood, who told us the following story: An old retired sailor puts on his old retired uniform

and heads for the docks once more, for old time’s sake. He engages a prostitute and takes her up to a room. He’s soon going at it as well as he can for a guy his age, but needing some reassurance, he asks, “How am I doing?” The prostitute replies, “Old sailor, you’re doing about three knots.” “Three knots?” he asks. “What’s that supposed to mean?” She says, “You’re knot hard, you’re knot in, and you’re knot getting your money back.” Ba-dingding-ding! And I remember Little Jimmy saying the Big Bang has to be the granddaddy of disaster explosions—now nearly 14 billion years since, and where’s the upside? And I remember saying “fock if I know,” ’cause I’m Art Kumbalek and I told you so.

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