Print Edition: December 27, 2018

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

Long Road to Legality

CBD Business Booming in Milwaukee STATE AND FEDERAL HEMP LAWS LIKELY TO BOOST INDUSTRY ::BY ROB HULLUM

Matthew Wetzel was first introduced to cannabis oil in 2014 when he was sitting in Froedtert Memorial Hospital’s cafeteria. His son was suffering from seizures, and he stepped away from the hospital room to get a bite to eat. Sanjay Gupta was on CNN, reporting on families that were using cannabis to treat ailments in their children. “I was thinking, ‘What the fuck would I give my kid weed for? No way,’” he recalled.

As he kept watching, he realized that the children on television were suffering from the same seizures as his son. One family had an especially profound effect on him. “The dad’s a military guy—where I have some military background—and he’s from the state of Wisconsin,” Wetzel said. “I’m like, ‘Wow, the stars have aligned here, and the universe is trying to tell me something.’” Wetzel said that he decided then and there to go to Colorado and learn more about medical cannabis.

Wetzel packed up his car and drove to Colorado Springs, Colo., where he was briefly homeless. He was eventually able to bring his then-fiancée and son out to him. This is when he began giving his son cannabidiol, an increasingly popular, non-psychoactive derivative of the cannabis or hemp plant better known by the shorthand CBD. Wetzel credits CBD for stopping his son’s seizures.

After seven months in Colorado, Wetzel moved back to Wisconsin, where he recently opened Laughing Grass Hemp, a CBD-only dispensary in West Allis. He has also become a leading advocate for hemp and CBD, working on the grassroots level and with state agencies to form policy at a time when laws are rapidly changing for the hemp plant.

4 | DECEMBER 27, 2018

In the 2014 federal farm bill, Congress included a provision that allowed universities and state departments of agriculture to set up pilot research programs to grow industrial hemp. The state of Wisconsin did not act on this opportunity until November 2017, when Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill into law directing the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) to create a pilot program.

DATCP was tasked with having the program up and running for the 2018 growing season, though it normally takes 18 months to set up a new program of this kind, according to DATCP spokeswoman Donna Gilson. This forced the department to accelerate through the process with what is called an “emergency rule,” bypassing public hearings and other processes. “We just gathered our forces and cranked out this law and were ready to begin licensing by March 1,” Gilson said.

Though DATCP does not have specific numbers, it seems that a majority of hemp farmers in Wisconsin were looking to use their crops for CBD products. “Just from talking with people, it was clear that was by far what the most people were interested in growing industrial hemp for,” Gilson said. “I think it’s viewed as the most profitable product, as opposed to using it for fiber or for seed or for grain to be used in food products.”

The only problem was the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) deemed CBD illegal, at first. A DOJ memo, released in late April, said that CBD products—even those with no THC, the chemical in cannabis that makes you feel high—were illegal to possess or distribute, except in limited circumstances for individuals possessing a doctor’s certification.

After DOJ staff met with members of the state legislature, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation and DATCP, the department decided to change course. Attorney General Brad Schimel released a statement advising law enforcement not to take action against CBD products made from industrial hemp grown under the pilot program until Congress made a decision in the 2018 farm bill.

That bill, which President Donald Trump signed last week, looks like a big win for the hemp and CBD industry. It completely removes hemp and its extracts, including CBD, from the Controlled Substances Act. “The Drug Enforcement Administration no longer has any possible claim to interfere with the interstate commerce of hemp products,” according to a memo released by the U.S. Hemp Roundtable. This should add steam to an industry that is already booming in the Milwaukee area.

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I’ve got 99 problems & CBD Oil Solved like 86 of them.

A Booming Business In 2017, United States CBD sales grew to more than $350 million, with some observers estimating that the market will grow to $2.1 billion by 2020. At least 10 CBD dispensaries have opened in the Milwaukee area this year, with more seeming to be opening weekly.

Rachel Cartwright, who owns CBD Therapeutics of Wisconsin, attributes CBD’s massive popularity to the perception that it provides the health benefits of medical cannabis without the social stigma. “We have this industry that’s blowing up, that is going to be bigger than the medical cannabis industry,” she said, “because the people who do not believe that marijuana consumption is publicly-acceptable do believe that CBD is.

You’re actually reaching a much broader audience than we would with cannabis, so more and more people are starting to go into the industry seeing the dollar signs.”

But as new entrepreneurs see dollar signs in a red-hot industry that, until just last week, operated in a relative legal limbo, some products are more reputable than others. “CBD is about as poorly regulated and understood as a product this popular can possibly be,” journalist Dan Nosowitz recently wrote in an article for Vox. “From a medical perspective, it’s promising; recreationally, it’s interesting. But that doesn’t mean the stuff you’re buying works.”

CBD products made by national brands are popping up in all sorts of places across the city, from mall kiosks to gas stations, with varying levels of quality. Since 2015, the Food & Drug Administration has sent warning letters to at least 18 companies for selling products with false and misleading labels with inaccurate CBD levels listed. “You have to be extraordinarily careful about these products, where they’re coming from and what they actually contain,” Cartwright said.

“There have been problems in the industry that have already been reported. Those problems are only going to get worse as the industry expands, and more and more money hungry, non-discretionary people are coming in.”

Both Wetzel and Cartwright claim to offer a more holistic approach to selling CBD. At Laughing Grass Hemp, Wetzel and his employees even call their customers “patients.” “The reason we do that is because we’re providing them something much more than a kiosk in the mall,” he said. “You can’t buy anything from our store unless you get to the knowledgeable budtender first, just like in a dispensary.”

Still, the outlook on hemp and CBD is mostly positive. With hemp’s full legalization on the horizon, Wetzel is having flashbacks to the 1940s, when Wisconsin was one of the world’s leading producers of the plant. “We could be one of the richest states because of hemp,” he said. “No doubt about it. That’s hard for people to understand, but in the next five years we could be the hemp capital of the world again.”

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6TH & CANAL DECEMBER 27, 2018 | 5

NEWS&VIEWS::FEATURE

CLOSING THE DARK STORE LOOPHOLE? Referendum results deliver resounding ‘yes’ for eliminating tax wrinkle that benefits big-box stores ::BY DAN SHAW

F

or a seemingly abstruse issue, the so-called dark-store loophole in state law received a resounding rejection when it was put on the ballot this past November. In referenda held in 23 counties, cities, villages and towns throughout the state, the dark-store loophole was voted down by a majority of the people who showed up to polling places on Tuesday, Nov. 6. On average, 78.65% voters answered “yes” to ballot questions asking if the loophole should be closed. The rejection vote was far bigger in individual places. In Dane County, for instance, 91.79% of voters called for ending the loophole, as did 89.59% in the nearby village of DeForest, 89.5% in Sun Prairie and 87.88% in Glendale.

Since the referenda were all non-binding, they will result in no actual changes to state law, but legislators in Madison are already taking notice. So, then, what exactly is the “darkstore loophole”? To critics, it’s an unfortunate wrinkle in Wisconsin’s tax system that unfairly shifts taxes onto homeowners and non-retail businesses. Rather than via state law, the loophole originated in the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in the case of Walgreens v. City of Madison.

The case bore directly on how local assessors calculate the property values of retail stores for tax purposes. The Supreme Court found that local assessors should be calculating these values not merely by trying to learn what a particular building might be generating in lease income, or how much it cost to build; instead, they should be taking into account the sales prices of similar properties, even if those properties were vacant, or “dark,” at the time of the sale.

Critics of the loophole argue that it has allowed big retailers to pay far less than their fair share of property taxes.

Thriving stores see their tax bills reduced every time a nearby vacant building once used for retail is sold for a fraction

6 | DECEMBER 27, 2018

of what its value had been when it was a going concern.

Loophole opponents say they aren’t out to pad local governments’ budgets. Since local officials are prohibited by state-imposed caps from raising property taxes beyond a certain amount every year, eliminating the dark-store loophole would not bring in additional money. Groups like the League of Wisconsin Municipalities instead claim they’re merely after fairness. The league has long noted that, when the dark-store loophole lets a retailer like Walgreens lower its tax bill by a certain amount, it’s not as if local governments’ need to collect money diminishes proportionally.

Rather than forgo revenue, local officials meet their budgetary needs by turning to other types of taxpayers. Homeowners and smaller businesses find themselves having to pick up the slack.

Who Pays?

The result is a shift in who pays for local government.

The League of Municipalities estimates that homeowners in Wisconsin now shoulder 68% of the total property tax burden. Jerry Deschane, executive director of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, said such facts should be persuasive in themselves. The recent referenda results merely underline the point for state lawmakers.

That’s not to say it will be easy getting something passed in the Wisconsin Legislature. In the state’s most recent legislative session, strong bipartisan support for bills meant to close the dark-store loophole was not enough. One piece of legislation had 84 legislative sponsors from both sides of the political aisle, yet it was never given a vote on the floor of the state Assembly or Senate.

One of the biggest defenders of the dark-store loophole has been the business lobbying outfit Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), which spent $407,800 to lobby the state legislature in the first six months of 2017, the most of any such group. Cory Fish, director of tax policy at WMC, said the recent referenda results were far less damaging to WMC’s case than many might believe. For one, Fish said, it’s obvious the ballot questions were phrased in a leading way.

In West Milwaukee, for instance, the question put to voters started with the words: “Should the state legislature protect residential property taxpayers by preventing commercial and manufacturing property owners from using tax loopholes that shift an ever-increasing tax burden to homeowners who already pay 68% of the statewide property tax levy…?”

“The referendum results were exactly what you would expect with such biased questions,” Fish said. He also quibbled with the League of Wisconsin Municipalities’ figures.

Fish conceded that homeowners do pay about 2/3rds of all property taxes in Wisconsin but said the league fails to note that about 2.5% of the total burden has shifted to businesses in the past 10 years.

All this is not to say Fish and others at WMC don’t think the current system can’t be improved. On Tuesday, Dec. 11, a legislative study committee released draft proposals calling for a series of reforms that are at least close to something WMC could support, Fish said. Among other things, the legislation would require businesses to furnish more of the sort of information that assessors could use to assess a property according to its income and let municipalities share with counties and schools the cost of defending property assessments that are challenged.

CRITICS OF THE LOOPHOLE ARGUE THAT IT HAS ALLOWED BIG RETAILERS TO PAY FAR LESS THAN THEIR FAIR SHARE OF PROPERTY TAXES. THRIVING STORES SEE THEIR TAX BILLS REDUCED EVERY TIME A NEARBY VACANT BUILDING ONCE USED FOR RETAIL IS SOLD FOR A FRACTION OF WHAT ITS VALUE HAD BEEN WHEN IT WAS A GOING CONCERN. Fish also questioned the League of Wisconsin Municipalities’ advertising tactics. He said the group sent out a letter to municipalities soliciting money that was eventually used to pay for a large online ad campaign. “All of it was taxpayer dollars,” Fish said. But even a heavyweight like WMC might not exercise enough influence to get its way on this issue. Members of both parties, including some of the most conservative Republicans, still favor closing the dark-store loophole, and Governor-elect Tony Evers has said he would sign legislation doing just that.

Brian Sikma—a spokesman for state Sen. Duey Stroebel, a Republican from Saukville—said this coming legislative session could very well be the time when the dark-store loophole is closed forever. Deschane said that he and others at the League of Wisconsin Municipalities similarly like their chances. “Although, with the legislature, you never want to say it’s a slam dunk,” he said. “There are still people putting a lot of energy into trying to say, ‘There’s nothing to see here,’ which defies all common sense.”

Comment at shepherdrexpress.com. n SHEPHERD EXPRESS

::SAVINGOURDEMOCRACY ( DEC. 27, 2018 - JAN. 2, 2019 ) 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 Donald Trump administration, as well as others who seek to thwart social justice. We will publicize and promote actions, demonstrations, planning meetings, teach-ins, party-building meetings, drinkingdiscussion get-togethers and any other actions that are directed toward fighting back to preserve our liberal democratic system.

Thursday, December 27 Young Democrats of Wisconsin Holiday Happy Hour @ Bernie’s Tap Room & Restaurant (351 W. Main St.), 7-9 p.m.

Democrats between the ages of 21 and 40 are invited to come hang out and talk with like-minded people at this holiday happy hour. Some appetizers will be provided, with non-alcoholic beverages also available.

Saturday, Dec. 29

Peace Action Wisconsin: Stand for Peace @ The corner of St. Paul Avenue and Water Street, noon-1 p.m.

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

Thursday, Jan. 3

Respect Our Vote Rally @ Rep. James Sensenbrenner’s Office (120 Bishops Way #154, Brookfield), 4-5 p.m.

The progressive organization Indivisible will lead a rally outside of conservative Republican U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner’s office to demand that he support legislation that is expected to strengthen everyone’s right to vote and to have their vote count to stem the tide of big money in politics.

Friday, Jan. 4

Kalan Haywood Wisconsin State Assembly Swearing-In Ceremony @ Cardinal Stritch University (6801 N. Yates Road), 10 a.m.-noon

Kalan Haywood became the youngest state legislator-elect in the nation when he won his election on Tuesday, Nov. 6 at only 19-years-old. He will host a swearing-in ceremony at Cardinal Stritch University.

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

Voces de la Frontera Waukesha Membership Meeting @ La Casa de Esperanza (410 Arcadian Ave., Waukesha), 6-8 p.m.

Voces de la Frontera Waukesha will include a “Know Your Rights” workshop and discuss its efforts to restore access to driver’s licenses to immigrants and fight against anti-immigrant policies at its bimonthly membership meeting.

First Friday Karaoke @ Bounce Milwaukee (2801 S. Fifth Court), 8-11 p.m.

On the first Friday of every month, Bounce Milwaukee hosts a karaoke event to benefit a local, progressive charity. Kids and adults under 21 years of age are welcome from 8-9 p.m., with the party switching to 21+ after 9. There is no cover charge to enter.

Saturday, Jan. 5

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, literally, “Stand for Peace.” Signs will be provided for those who need them. Protesters are encouraged to stick around for conversation and coffee afterward.

Tuesday, Jan. 8

White Privilege @ Tony and Lucille Weasler Auditorium (1506 W. Wisconsin Ave.), 7-9 p.m.

Marquette Theatre student Malaina Moore considers how interactions with students, teachers, parents, friends and even strangers are influenced by race and how the color of one’s skin can lead to a very different experience of the world.

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 Trump and others of his kind have planned for our great country.

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DECEMBER 27, 2018 | 7

NEWS&VIEWS::FEATURE

The Mythological Paul Ryan Slithers Away ::BY JOEL MCNALLY

H

ouse Speaker Paul Ryan gave his farewell address the other day ending, for now, the Wisconsin congressman’s 20-year rise in national politics. He decried the broken, outrage-fueled politics of our divisive age as if he were an innocent bystander to the corruption of the Republican Party. He wasn’t. He was a primary contributor.

Ryan’s entire political career was a dishonest, self-perpetuated myth—that he was a bright, young, conservative leader of his party, sincerely committed to reducing the cost of government while remaining a decent, socially conscious Republican earnestly searching for solutions to poverty in our inner cities. In the end, both of those political images were exposed as total fabrications, but the Washington press corps bought them for years. They described Ryan as an intellectual “policy wonk” raising alarm about deficit spending by Democrats that had the nation on the brink of economic collapse. Ryan was the original prophet of apocalyptic American carnage.

Paul Krugman, columnist for The New York Times and actual Nobel Prize-winning economist, was one of the few to call out Ryan as a fraudulent flimflam man. Ryan dishonestly manipulated numbers to justify Republican attempts to dismantle Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, to oppose growing political pressure for health care reform to end bankrupting medical expenses and denial of insurance to people with pre-existing conditions. Krugman noted the draconian House budgets passed by Ryan did little to reduce deficits. They proposed cruelly slashing spending for Social Security, Medicare, food stamps and other programs assisting struggling Americans and funneling most those savings into large tax cuts for the wealthy.

Ryan and the Deficit

Here’s everything you need to know about the myth of Ryan the Deficit Slayer. Under President Obama, in the five years before Ryan became House Speaker, the federal deficit fell every year. When Ryan rose to speaker in October 2015, the annual deficit was $438 billion.

After three years under Speaker Ryan, the annual deficit this year is $779 billion. Next year, it will be $1 trillion. And that’s just the beginning of the coming escalation from the enormous Republican tax cut for the wealthy expected to add $1.5 to $2 trillion to the nation’s total debt over the next 10 years. Large tax cuts for the wealthy have always been Ryan’s first priority.

Ryan promoted his other self-created myth, that he somehow actually cared about poor people, with one highly publicized tour of impoverished urban neighborhoods in 2010.

You probably remember all the major legislation Ryan introduced after that tour increasing family-supporting jobs and equal employment to rebuild inner cities. You don’t? Neither does anybody else. What people remember are all those cruel budget cuts aimed at the poorest Americans. Ryan believed if poor people received government assistance to survive, they would loll around in hammocks without looking for work.

Of course, when there aren’t any jobs at all in a community, looking can be futile. That was true in most communities when President Obama was elected in 2008 amid the nation’s second worst economic crisis in US history.

That didn’t stop Ryan and other Republicans from fighting to block Obama’s desperately needed $787 billion economic stimulus program creating jobs to put millions of Americans back to work. Call them un-American, sure. But Republicans didn’t want a successful economic recovery by a Democratic president to ease the misery of millions of unemployed workers. His re-election would be assured.

Failing to Call Trump a Liar

The 2012 Republican presidential campaign against Obama was a turning point for Ryan and for Republicans, but not in a good way. Many

believe President Trump’s endless torrent of obvious lies is his own unique Republican innovation. The Washington Post invented the Bottomless Pinocchio to describe the brazen lies Trump repeats 20 or more times after they’ve been proven false.

But it’s Ryan, Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential running mate, who should be recognized as the Republican who opened the floodgates.

Ryan’s convention acceptance speech was the high point of his career, what one reporter described as “an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech.” Proud hometown supporters watching had to be embarrassed by Ryan attacking Obama for closing the Janesville GM plant when everyone in town knew it closed in June 2008 under President Bush. Intentional, incessant lying has been acceptable Republican political rhetoric ever since.

Whatever credit Ryan once received for his pre-election dance about whether to support the dangerously ignorant, unfit, racist Trump for president has vanished with Ryan’s humiliating sucking up to Trump as president to achieve what’s always been dearest to both of their hearts—ever bigger tax cuts for millionaires (like Ryan) and billionaires (like Trump).

May the mythological Paul Ryan now vanish along with everything he’s done to help degrade the Republican Party into an embarrassment to democracy.

NEWS&VIEWS::POLL

You Doubt the Packers Will Make the Playoffs Next Season Last week, we asked if you believe the Green Bay Packers will rebound next season and make the playoffs. You said: n Yes: 33% n No: 67%

What Do You Say? The stock market has experienced major selloffs on fears of an economic slowdown. Are you worried the economy is headed in the wrong direction? n Yes n No Vote online at shepherdexpress.com. We’ll publish the results of this poll in next week’s issue.

8 | DECEMBER 27, 2018

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

ERIN BLOODGOOD

NEWS&VIEWS::HEROOFTHEWEEK

Christine Neumann-Ortiz

Christine Neumann-Ortiz Fighting for Immigrants ::BY ERIN BLOODGOOD

C

hristine Neumann-Ortiz is the epitome of an activist. She dedicates what seems like every moment of her time to fighting against political causes that hurt immigrant and Latino communities. She has become the leader of a movement that defends the rights of immigrants by organizing masses of people from those groups in solidarity. “For me, it’s making sure we keep that link with each other,” she explains, “and really beat back those politics of divide and conquer. That’s how we’re going to move forward.” Making a change is all about organizing groups of people from the ground up and building a community that is ready to put everything on the line for a new outcome.

Neumann-Ortiz got involved in activism in her early 20s—“late in life,” as she puts it. She began participating in social justice, organizing and realizing that there was “an economic structure that was benefitting from putting one group against the other.” That realization informed her approach to organizing and motivated her to dive deeper into social justice movements. In those early years, she learned the power a movement could have when unifying people from a grassroots level.

A few years later, in 1994, Neumann-Ortiz took her advocacy to a new level when she started the newspaper Voces de la Frontera, or Voices from the Border in English. She used it as a way to draw attention to the terrible conditions in Mexican factories and advocate for fair rights for the workers. The name of the newspaper references the voices of the factory workers in the maquiladora industry who were coming together to demand fair conditions.

Voces de la Frontera and Neumann-Ortiz continued to grow a larger support system of immigrants, refugees and Latinos. As she explains, “Voces draws strength from its members” and is “able to organize in ways that can scale up powerfully with tens of thousands of people.” Voces has always been a voice for those that don’t have one and has worked to change laws and policies that hinder the lives of their members.

Currently, Voces and Neumann-Ortiz are determined to change Act 126, a law passed by Wisconsin in 2006. Under the law, the state cannot not give driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants or people without a social security number, but Voces has created the Driver’s License for All campaign to put power back in the hands of immigrants. For undocumented immigrants, no driver’s license could mean not being able to get to work, traffic fines they can’t afford or deportation. If Voces can get their plan for change into the state budget, “it’s the greatest protection for immigrant families in Wisconsin,” says Neumann-Ortiz. “We do need everybody’s help.”

“Organizing is like gardening. It’s constant,” she continues. In conversation, NeumannOrtiz is quick to talk about the next issue and how to improve policies because there is always more progress to be made. “We just have to make sure that we continue to be strong and unified and bold and the times require it.”

Learn more at vdlf.org/drivercards.

For more of Erin Bloodgood’s work and to find ways to get involved, visit bloodgoodfoto.com.

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FEATURE | SHORT ORDER | EAT/DRINK

New in Milwaukee 2018 ENDS WITH THE OPENING ::BY LACEY MUSZYNSKI A new food hall full of options has opened on the East Side in a location that has seen a lot of turnover. Plus, Caribbean flavor comes to the North Side, we finally get soup dumplings, a tavern sells breakfast and even more tacos have hit Downtown Milwaukee.

rice and peas (aka kidney beans) and ground provisions (root vegetables), as is chicken that can be stewed, curried or jerked ($12.95). Specialty cocktails ($10) include rum punch, mojitos and a banana cabana.

Crossroads Collective

Angry Taco

2238 N. Farwell Ave. crossroadscollectivemke.com

A food hall has opened in the East Side spot that most recently housed a couple sports bar concepts and, more famously, Oriental Drugs. The 7,000-squarefoot space has seating for almost 100 in a modern take on a food court. There are six food vendors currently operating, with two additional planned.

Heaven’s Table

A barbecue counter is the first brick-and-mortar location for chef Jason Alston who smokes his meats over hickory. Brisket, ribs, pork shoulder and Lao sausages are available in combos with sides like grits and fried corn.

Frida

The owners of Tess are operating this soup-and-sandwich counter named after artist Frida Kahlo. Items often have a Mexican inspiration, like pork pozole and chicken tinga tortas. Other options include duck po’boys, tomato bisque and brown butter crispy treats.

A new Mexican spot has opened in the former Bruegger’s Bagels Downtown.

Angry Taco is a counter-service restaurant that focuses on tacos and has a lucha libre theme. Corn tortillas are made daily in-restaurant. You can choose to fill them with asada, al pastor, chicken, ground beef or a vegetarian option with chipotle chickpea and buffalo cauliflower ($2.75-$3.25). On Fridays, shrimp and tilapia options ($3.75) are added. Nachos ($8-$8.75), burritos or bowls ($8.50$9.75), quesadillas ($8-$8.50) and tamales ($2.50) are also available. The restaurant has a liquor license, so beer (including Explorium Brewpub options) and margaritas are offered, as well as agua frescas.

753 N. Water St. • 414-800-7785 $-$$ • angrytacomke.com

Momo Mee

Beerline Café

An Asian restaurant specializing in dumplings and noodle dishes has opened in the Harbor View neighborhood. Momo Mee is run by Tony Ho, the former chef at RuYi in Potawatomi Hotel & Casino. The menu features dishes from all over Asia, including India, China and Korea. On the dumpling side are xiao long bao (aka Shanghai soup dumplings) filled with rich broth ($12), pork potstickers ($8) and Sichuan wontons ($8). Homemade noodles appear in various types of ramen ($14), yakisoba with pork belly, beef, chicken or shrimp ($13-$16) and dan noodles ($12). Non-noodle entrees like Japanese garlic eggplant ($12) and a selection of sakes are also available.

Falafel Guys

Uncle Wolfie’s Breakfast Tavern

The Laughing Taco

This is the third location of the taco shop (including at the Fiserv Forum) owned by Lucia Muñoz and her husband, Justin Carlisle. Its small menu of tacos includes spit-roasted pork trompo and pirata with steak in a caramelized cheese tortilla.

This is the second location of the café that specializes in vegetarian and vegan cuisine. Crepes are the focus, and the menu includes favorites from the original café in addition to new items such as lemon poppyseed with blueberries.

This is the first permanent location for the restaurant in Milwaukee, to go along with a spot in Thiensville, Wis., and their food truck. The focus is on Israelistyle sandwiches like eggplant and chicken shawarma, plus salads, bowls and appetizers.

Scratch Ice Cream

This is the first location for the local ice cream maker whose products are available in some grocery stores and restaurants. The scoop shop will offer rotating flavors like dirt cake and crème brûlée in cones and pints, plus ice cream sandwiches.

Jewels Caribbean Restaurant

A Caribbean restaurant has opened in former retail space in the Halyard Park neighborhood. The family run Jewels is helmed by mother Lucile Jules, who is from St. Lucia, along with her daughters, Natasha and Lennora, who are Milwaukee natives. The space is full of tropical color, including a blue bar top inlaid with seashells. Cuisine from St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica is served for lunch, dinner and brunch. Curried goat ($17.95) is served with

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2230 N. Martin Luther King Drive • 414-585-0678 $$-$$$ • jewelscaribbean.com

110 E. Greenfield Ave. • 414-316-9003 $$ • momomeerestaurant.com

A diner and tavern in the works for over two years has opened in Brewer’s Hill.

Uncle Wolfie’s is open for breakfast and lunch only, but sports a tavern style, feel and “beer goes with breakfast” slogan. About half the food menu is dedicated to breakfast items and half to lunch. Steak and eggs ($18) come with a 10-ounce, dry-aged, New York strip steak, while a breakfast burrito ($14) is filled with coffee-rubbed pork, sweet potatoes, eggs and salsa verde. Entree salads ($10-$15) include BLT and steak versions, and burgers ($11-$12) are stuffed with American cheese. Other sandwiches include a Millee cheese steak ($12) with beer cheese sauce and chicken salad ($10) with tarragon and cherries.

234 E. Vine St. • $$ unclewolfies.com

CLOSINGS

Mykonos Gyro & Café in Downtown Milwaukee will be closing on Sunday, Dec. 30, after 24 years in business. Also, Maison on Vliet Street has closed with the business available for purchase, but all is not bad news for Maison; according to a post on their Facebook page, they’re looking for a larger space to accommodate a growing catering business.

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::SHORTORDER

Adam Pawlak, Chef, Black Sheep 216 S. Second St. • 414-223-0903

Tenuta’s Italian Restaurant

2995 S. Clement Ave. 414-431-1014 tenutasitalian.com

SHEPHERD STAFF

Adam Pawlak, chef at Black Sheep, likes to stay close to home when he goes out to eat. He lives across the street from Laughing Taco, so he gets there at least twice a week. “What’s better than sitting at a counter and watching your food made right in front of you?” he asks. He especially like the campechano taco, which he describes as “one of the foods on my short list of things I crave!”

Pawlak also likes to eat out in Bay View.

“I was born and raised in Bay View, and one of the classics is Tenuta’s,” he says. “Fresh pasta, amazing pizza, and who doesn’t love a salad to start with every entrée? I’ve never had a bad experience at this restaurant... I always order something different, but the Bolognese is great.”

The Laughing Taco

1033 S. First St. 414-210-3086 laughingtaco.com

Strange Town’s Plant-Based Dining with a Global Twist ::BY ELIZABETH JANOWSKI

Every night, an orange neon glow radiates from the home of plant-based bistro Strange Town (2101 N. Prospect Ave.). Step inside, and you’ll find a charmingly cozy space teeming with string lights and house plants, tied together by an eclectic soundtrack, courtesy of owner Andy Noble’s personal vinyl record collection.

Strange Town’s seasonal menu boasts a panoply of snacks and small plates as vibrant as its music selection. It dodges tired vegan staples like tofu and meat substitutes, and instead draws from cuisines around the world—from fragrant Thai green curry and creamy mojo de ajo potatoes to jumuk bap—crispy Korean rice balls stuffed with a medley of mushrooms and served with kimchi. The sea vegetable salad, which features a unique assortment of crunchy “ocean ribbons” and kelp noodles tossed in a refreshing ginger crema, was a particularly inventive highlight of my meal.

The lunch menu offers markedly fewer items but still carries satisfying dishes like the light and crispy sweet potato and kale samosa and the “deluxe” hummus plate, which comes with a generous helping of pickled vegetables, fresh sprouts and toasted beech mushrooms. With its wildly imaginative and surprisingly addictive array of plant-based offerings, Strange Town deserves a visit from herbivores and carnivores alike.

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VARIETY OF DISHES AT MILWAUKEE’S MEXICAN CORNER ::BY JAMIE LEE RAKE

Milwaukee’s South Side surely doesn’t lack for Mexican restaurants. Even so, the idea of two of them operating across the street from each other—at the intersection of South 13th and West Burnham streets—may at first seem like overkill.

That notion gives too little credit to the diversity within the cuisine and the power of cultural adaptation.

Taqueria Los Gallos (1800 S. 13th St.) dips further into the cultural melting pot.

Traditional offerings such as tacos share a menu with fusion dishes such as a carne al pastor burger of ground beef and pork in a bun, plus American items like chicken wings and a bacon-wrapped hot dog. Gallos’ pinnacle of uniqueness may be its carne asada fries. Over enough shoestring fried potatoes for two or three diners to easily share are slathered a combination of grilled, marinated and shredded beef, white cheese, chopped tomato and shredded lettuce. Consider it a Hispanic poutine, perhaps. The grilled mushroom quesadilla, resembling a loosely assembled burrito and spiced with red chilis, is arguably even more fulsomely delicious.

El Tlaxcalteca Restaurant (1300 W. Burnham St.) hews closer to heritage offerings, but not without its own proprietary delicacies and items rarely found elsewhere in the city. A branded take on the breakfast staple of chilquiles places steak, onions, eggs and sour cream amid tortilla chips, red sauce or green sauce and cheese. A complex palette of beefy, tangy and citrusy flavors emerges when skirt steak and onions are combined with cactus for a traditional plate lunch. Soups include beef and chicken varieties chock-full of corn, multiple squashes, carrot, potato and cabbage. Chickpeas and greens complement a lamb consommé served similarly to menudo, with complements of chopped onion, cilantro and lime, shakers of oregano and red pepper as well. Of El Tlaxcalteca Restaurant’s few desserts, the one most worth the splurge may be fried plantain slices daubed with strawberry preserves.

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DININGOUT::EATDRINK

Glas’ Cheese Spreads are All Natural and ‘Pure Wisconsin’ ::BY SHEILA JULSON

F

or 40 years, Gene Glas had worked in food manufacturing for a cheese spread company. When he left that job, his children were disappointed and asked how they would get good cheese spread. That inspired Gene and his wife, Jan, to start making their own in their home kitchen for themselves and their friends. “Our kids got older and said, ‘dad, you ought to do something with that,’” Gene said.

So, in 2015, Gene and Jan formed Glas All Naturals, with a line of six flavored cheese spreads: apple, jalapeño, bacon, cheddar, wine and alfredo—the latter can also be used as a sauce. The spreads are made on the prop-

erty of Brightonwoods Orchard (also home to AEppelTreow Winery), where the Glas’ remodeled an old cider room into a licensed dairy. “Brightonwoods owners Bill and Judy Stone, and her sister, Paula Puntenney, are wonderful people,” Gene said. “They appreciate our dairy plant being there. It’s an additional attraction.”

The refrigerated spreads are Gene’s original recipes, all made with no artificial additives or preservatives. While cheese spreads are commonly used on crackers, Gene and Jan note that Glas All Naturals have myriad uses. “At farmers markets, which is where we sell the bulk of our cheese spreads, we tell people you can use them for wherever you use cheese.

Each flavor can be used for a different purpose—on sandwiches, in scrambled eggs or in breakfast or dinner entrees,” Jan said.

Gene calls the cheddar variety “pure Wisconsin. It’s wonderfully aged, and all the ingredients are from Wisconsin,” he said. “The natural flavors of aged cheddar come out of that. I call it the closest thing to cheese in a spreadable form.” He said their grandchildren use the cheddar to make macaroni and cheese.

The jalapeño has a base of grade-A cheddar aged for a year, with fresh jalapeños instead of peppers canned in brine. Using fresh jalapeños gives the spread a clean and snappy bite, with no overwhelming heat. Gene recommends this variety for brats, burgers and nachos. The wine cheese spread has the earthy,

Glas Cheese Spreads PHOTO BY DEREK GLAS

oak flavor of cabernet sauvignon, which gives more robust flavor than port wine, commonly used in other spreadable cheeses. Gene notes that it goes well with vegetables. Apple spread was created with Brightonwoods’ cider and apples.

The spreads are sold in 16.5-ounce jars, a slightly larger quantity than most cheese spreads, but in the off-chance that you don’t finish the whole jar within a couple of weeks,

the cheese spread can actually be frozen and will stay fresh until you’re ready to eat the rest.

Glas All Naturals will be at the Kenosha Winter HarborMarket, Milwaukee Winter Farmers Market at The Domes, Milaeger’s Great Lakes Winter Farmers Market and Mukwonago Winter Farmers Market. For more information, visit glasallnaturals.com.

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Four Elements Herbals Health and Wellness Teas ::BY SHEILA JULSON

ane Hawley Stevens could be considered a pioneer in healing herbs and organic farming. For nearly three decades, she’s owned Four Elements Herbals, a 130-acre, certified-organic herb farm near Baraboo, Wis., where she grows fresh herbs for use in artisan skin creams, tinctures and other herbal products.

Six years ago, she received a U.S. Department of Agriculture Value-Added Producer Grant, which allowed her to add a line of medicinal herbal teas to her offerings.

Hawley Stevens spent much of her childhood outdoors, taking walks and picking blueberries with her grandmother. After graduating from UW-Madison with a bachelor’s degree in horti-

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culture, Hawley Stevens’ first job was to install an herb garden at a research facility. “From there, I quickly became interested in herbs for cooking and crafts,” she said.

That was in 1982, when synthetically flavored and artificially scented products were taking over store shelves. After she got married and gave birth to her son, she became curious about how herbs worked for healing. She started making herbal remedies for infant earaches and other ailments and noticed how herbs worked more efficiently than allopathic solutions. Inspired, she started making herbal products from plants on her farm, which earned organic certification in 1990. She started selling to mom-and-pop shops and health food co-ops. She then started researching USDA grants and noticed the ValueAdded Producer Grant.

“In order to receive that grant, you have to produce more than 50% of what was in the finished product. Most of my products are based on organic sunflower oil or some sort of carrier, but tea would fit into those grant requirements. I already offered teas sold in tins,” she said. The grant provided her with the funds for packaging artwork, office support and the launching of her product line.

There are nine varieties of Four Elements medicinal teas, each crafted with certified-organic herbs that are hand-harvested, dried and packed into gunnysacks on the farm. They are then shipped to an organic processor in California that has sophisticated machinery to package the prod-

uct. Hawley Stevens created all nine formulas.

“What makes my tea so different is, when you open a box of Four Elements tea, you can really smell and taste the plant,” she said. “Most teas packaged in tea bags are sourced on the worldwide market, and when they come over in ships, they have to be quarantined to test for identification. As they sit in humid or dry conditions, the quality goes down.”

Opening a box of Minus Sinus releases a soothing aroma of spearmint; mullein, thyme, elderflower and nettle give the tea blend additional properties to help ward off winter colds. After Dinner Fennel Mint tea combines fennel and lemon balm to aid digestion. Joy, Love and Passion’s complex floral blend includes lemon balm, hibiscus and passionflower. Tulsi Telepa; Peace, Harmony and Tranquility; Peppermint Nettle; Power, Energy and Stamina; To Your Health and Triple Lemon blends round out Four Element’s tea line.

Hawley Stevens recently started biodynamic farming, a concept that incorporates planetary energies such as planting by cycles of the Moon, which favors certain growing aspects. Hawley Stevens will give a talk on biodynamic farming on Saturday, May 18, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at Boerner Botanical Gardens. Four Elements teas are available in the Milwaukee area at Woodman’s, Beans and Barley, Outpost Natural Foods, Good Harvest Market and Health Hut (Hales Corners location), as well as online. For more information, visit fourelementsherbals.com.

Jane Hawley Stevens

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::LOOKINGAHEAD Winter 2019 Concert Preview ::BY EVAN RYTLEWSKI

It used to be that the months following Christmas were the driest stretch of the year for music fans in Milwaukee who usually had to wait until the first signs of spring before the concert calendar came to life again.

These days, the city’s concert calendar never stays dark for too long, though, and once again this winter, Milwaukee has some big shows lined up to help tide us over until the weather turns tolerable again.

The Fiserv Forum continues its star-studded inaugural year with a parade of marquee shows, including Bob Seger (Thursday, Jan. 24); Panic! at the Disco (Sunday, Jan. 27); KISS (Friday, March 1); and Mumford and Sons (Sunday, March 31). But perhaps its most headlinegrabbing one is Elton John, who will likely be playing Milwaukee for the final time as part of his Goodbye Yellow Brick Road farewell tour on Tuesday, Feb. 19. The 71-year-old songwriting legend began the tour last fall and says he expects it to last three years.

The Miller High Life Theatre can always be counted on to bring in some impressive R&B bills, and in March, it’ll host its most anticipated in years, when Mariah Carey headlines the venue on Friday, Mar. 15. Amazingly, it’ll be Carey’s first Milwaukee show ever, and her timing couldn’t be better. She’s touring behind Caution, her strongest record in nearly a decade.

Not to be outdone, The Rave has booked its own show from a R&B pioneer rarely seen in the city. The groundbreaking neo-soul singer Erykah Badu will play her first Milwaukee show in nearly 15 years at the venue’s Eagles Ballroom on Friday, Jan. 18. With any luck, she’ll have some new music to share. Save for a delightfully lowkey 2015 mixtape called But You Caint Use My Phone, the singer hasn’t released any new material since her knotty 2010 album New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh).

The final weeks of winter also bring some returning favorites back to town. The New Power Generation was Prince’s longest-serving live band, backing the funk icon from 1990 to 2013 before rejoining him for his final studio album, 2015’s HitnRun Phase Two. Since his death in 2016, they’ve toured in his memory. They’ll return to Milwaukee for a headlining show at the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino’s Northern Lights Theater on Thursday, Feb. 21.

Just a week later, Shank Hall will welcome back one of its go-to draws—rock ‘n’ roll icon Jonathan Richman, on Friday, March 1. In the decades since he foreshadowed punk rock with his band, The Modern Lovers, Richman has toured relentlessly behind his humble, unscripted and utterly uplifting live show, joined by his longtime drummer, Tommy Larkins. Part comedian, part philosopher, he’s the rare performer who always leaves the audience feeling a little better about the world—and just the kind of pick-me-up we all could use after surviving another long Milwaukee winter.

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Winter 2019 Classical Music Preview ::BY JOHN JAHN

You could spend a lifetime exploring the vast treasure trove that comprises what is commonly (though erroneously) known as classical music. I’ve now spent about four decades doing so (having bought my first classical LP with my weekly allowance money when I was 11), and yet I continue to make new discoveries in this music that spans many centuries, continents and cultures. Perusing the offerings of the many professional classical music performance ensembles throughout the greater Milwaukee area, I pulled a few of the seemingly brightest gems from that treasure trove to share with you. We embark upon our journey thousands of years ago, in a land far, far away…

“Sacred Music, Sacred Dance”

Early Music Now brings some of the most obscure music to our area, as well as some of the oldest. Case-in-point is their hosting of the Tibetan monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery on Saturday, April 13 in the Tripoli Shrine Center. The audience will hear traditional Tibetan music, both religious and secular, dating back some 2,500 years—including, of course, the haunting sounds of those massive long trumpets known as dungchens. As a side note, the monks will be creating an intricate sand mandala at the Milwaukee City Hall throughout the week before their concert.

The Coronation of Poppea

Poppea is the lover of Roman emperor Nerone, and she’s determined to become empress, but what about Ottavia, the current occupant of that position? When the affair is uncovered, Poppea and Nerone are forced into exile. Will their love survive? This is the plot of one of the first operas to be based on historical events and people, The Coronation of Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea), by Italian Renaissance composer Claudio Monteverdi, which premiered in 1643. The Florentine Opera’s production, taking place in Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall March 22-31, will set the action in Monteverdi’s time and feature harpsichordist Jory Vinikour.

A German Requiem

Johannes Brahms (1833-’97) composed one of the great masterpieces of Romantic choral music, his German Requiem (Ein Deutsches Requiem), by astutely and assiduously avoiding traditional requiem mass texts and references. His goal was to console the living in the wake of loss with comforting images and thoughts. Its significant emotional power draws from the deaths of Brahms’ mother and his friend and mentor, Robert Schumann. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and vocal soloists under conductor Eun Sun Kim perform Brahms’ masterpiece in Uihlein Hall March 29 and 30.

Carmina Burana

Even classical music has its one-hit wonders; that can be said of German composer Carl Orff and his 1937 “scenic cantata,” Carmina Burana. While undeniably “modern,” the work makes for a fascinating bridge between the Middle Ages and the 20th century—especially given its texts derived from 13th-century poetry (some of it quite raunchy). Encompassing music, song and movement, the work begs for more than a mere concert performance. Indeed, four organizations unite to reconceive this masterpiece for the intimate Cabot Theatre at the Broadway Theatre Center March 15-31: Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Skylight Music Theatre, Danceworks Performance Company and Chant Claire Chamber Choir.

“In the (Chamber) Serr”

We started this journey some 2,500 year ago; now we reach the present—Present Music, that is, and their “In The (Chamber) Serr” concert. Newly constructed, UW-Milwaukee’s Jan Serr Studio is the venue for this concert by the beloved Present Music ensemble, our local practitioners of modern classical music. They describe the location as a “flexible, technologicallyintegrated performance venue that will choreograph light and sound in as many unique ways as the diverse group of university and community artists it aims to serve,” and their concert will be one of the inaugural events therein. As for what you’ll hear in the Serr Studio on Feb. 21 and 22: “Music you’ve never heard before in a space you’ve never seen like this before.”

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Winter 2019 Theatre Preview ::BY HARRY CHERKINIAN

From family drama to human comedy, the new year starts off with some thoughtprovoking productions sure to keep the conversation going long after the stage lights have dimmed.

Junk

Milwaukee’s own Ayad Akhtar is back with the Midwest premiere of his most recent work, Junk, which is about junk bond dealers of the 1980s. Based on real life characters, Junk portrays a world where debt is an asset, and only money matters. Akhtar won the Pulitzer Prize for Disgraced, which the Milwaukee Repertory Theater also produced—in addition to his other works on the Muslim American experience, The Invisible Hand and The Who & The What. The Rep’s Junk runs Jan. 15-Feb. 17.

Photograph 51

It’s London in the 1950s, and a young, dedicated physicist, Rosalind Franklin, is about the make one of the most important discoveries of the 20th Century: the double helix, which helped in the understanding and development of molecular biology. While the discovery is attributed to two men—James Watson and Francis Crick—Anna Ziegler’s play explores why Franklin was left out of the annals of history. This Renaissance Theaterworks production runs Jan. 18-Feb. 10.

Five Guys Named Moe

is set in a Louisiana high school. When African American student Raylynn decides to sit under a tree where only the privileged white students sit, racism appears the next day in the form of three nooses found hanging from the tree. Root is based on the real-life story of the “Jena Six,” involving six high-school football players and the racial confrontations between black and white youths. It provides no simple solutions; rather, the play focuses on how existing prejudices and stereotypes get in the way of even starting the conversation toward social justice and unity. Blood at the Root plays Jan. 31-Feb. 24 at Next Act Theatre.

The Velocity of Autumn

Veteran actor and playwright Angela Iannone plays Alexandra, a woman who faces her twilight years with a stockpile of determination and resilience to stay in her home—and a much bigger stockpile of bombs to make sure no one interferes with her plans! That is, until her estranged son Chris climbs in through the second-floor window of her Brooklyn, N.Y., brownstone to mediate on behalf of the family—as well as the entire city block that she can blow up with her threats. This In Tandem Theatre production, which runs Feb. 22-March 17, is recommended for ages 16 and older.

When estranged son James tries to visit his father on his deathbed, he’s rejected by his family, including his mother. Something happened in the potting shed when James was 14, which he doesn’t remember. Will faith and forgiveness prevail? The Acacia Theatre Company production takes place at Concordia University March 1-10.

Locomotion

Ben Butler

Blood at the Root

Racism, homophobia, violence. All issues that resonate more than ever in today’s world—and workplace. These are the themes found in Dominique Morisseau’s play, which

Jan.12 - 20

Order tickets by phone: 414.288.7504, or online at marquettetheatre.showclix.com BROA DWAY ’S BI G G E S T L I T T L E H E RO IS ABOUT TO TAK E MILWAUK EE BY STORM!

The Potting Shed

A musical tribute to 1940s’ R&B singer, songwriter and bandleader Louis Jordan. After his girlfriend leaves him, Jordan becomes inspired listening to the music of five guys named... you guessed it, Moe! Recommended for ages 11 and up, this Skylight Music Theatre production runs Jan. 25-Feb. 10.

Young Lonnie Collins Motion learns to deal with life while in the foster care system by discovering a passion for writing poetry.

This First Stage Children’s Theater Company production (running Jan. 25-Feb. 24) is recommended for families with children ages 6 and older.

Evan P. and Marion Helfaer Theatre

The Milwaukee premiere of Richard Strand’s play, Ben Butler, asks the question: Must a runaway slave be returned to his owner?

Based on a true story, Union Army Maj. Gen. Butler—an attorney who’s now in command of Virginia’s Fort Monroe—must face the question (and the person) in the form of Shepard Mallory, who demands sanctuary. It’s a battle between law and humanity; a choice which can change history—for both men, as well as the entire nation. This Milwaukee Chamber Theatre production runs April 12-28.

Looking Ahead continued on page 16 >

Roald Dahl’s MATILDA THE MUSICAL Book by Dennis Kelly Music and Lyrics by Tim Minchin

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::::LOOKINGAHEAD > Looking Ahead continued from page 15

Winter 2019 Dance Preview ::BY JOHN SCHNEIDER

SueMo: A Dance Experience: Symbiosis

This concert of new repertoire—at the Marcus Center’s Wilson Theatre Jan. 12 and 13— takes place where this terrific contemporary dance company is resident. Says co-founder Morgan Williams: “At this fifth year in the company’s history, we’re like toddlers; we need the support of other Milwaukee artists.” Hence, this concert features collaborations with drummer Jacob Durbin, spoken word poet Brooklyn Lloyd and choreographer Heather Mrotek, plus a major multi-media premiere by Williams.

UWM Peck School of the Arts: Winterdances: Refuge

This is the first of two annual showcases by UW-Milwaukee’s Dance Department (taking place Jan. 31-Feb. 3), with premieres by dance faculty members Simone Ferro and Darci Wutz, as well as guest artists Andrea Burkholder and Esther Baker-Tarpaga, along with the students.

Danceworks Performance Company: Torch and Glamour: An Exploration of Love and Illusion

Featuring guest artists Andréa Moser and Ryan Cappleman, this production (Feb. 9-16) will include audience suggestions. Artistic director Dani Kuepper says: “Rehearsals have been roaring with laughter. Andréa and Ryan emcee a variety show format featuring our company as dancers, singers, rappers, pianists, lip-sync artists and dodgeball competitors!

We’re having a blast creating new, unlikely parodies and celebrations-of-heartbreak heroines such as Judy Garland, Lady Gaga, Olivia Newton-John, Pat Benatar and even Nicki Minaj. What can soothe a broken heart? A glamorous makeover, of course; and one audience member will receive the royal treatment at each show!”

Milwaukee Ballet: Genesis International Choreographic Competition

Michael Pink chose Australia’s Cass Mortimer Eipper, Spain’s Aleix Mane and the U.K.’s Kenneth Tindall from a large pool of applicants for this competition (Feb. 14-17). All have extensive credits. Each will choreograph for the Milwaukee Ballet dancers. Distinguished national artists choose the winner, but the audience picks a favorite too. One or both will create a work here next year. Exciting contemporary ballet is guaranteed.

Milwaukee Ballet II: Momentum

The emerging professionals of MBII will perform George Balanchine’s celebrated Serenade in Milwaukee for the first time in more than 20 years—along with premieres by Milwaukee Ballet’s resident choreographers—on Saturday, Feb. 16, at 1:30 p.m.

Wild Space Dance Company: Making/Unmaking

Debra Loewen’s next immersive performance will be at the Warehouse—the 4,000-square-foot exhibition space of Guardian Fine Arts Services (1635 W. St. Paul Ave.) in the heart of the new Design District that’s evolved in that neighborhood. Says Loewen: “The Warehouse gallery’s white walls and massive pillars frame a wild exhibition of danced portraits, living sculptures and site-situated landscapes of movement and sound. The Feb. 21-24 show takes inspiration from the district’s industrial past, present and future.”

Maria Gillespie/The Collaboratory: On Belonging

It’s back to Guardian Fine Arts Services on Friday, March 8, for Gillespie’s collaboration with visual artist Nirmal Raja, photographer Lois Bielefeld and cellist Janet Schiff.

Says Gillespie: “Nirmal and Lois will have exhibitions up. I’ll choreograph an installation work using one of Nirmal’s textile pieces—a 30-foot muslin fabric that’s inscribed with Milwaukee history.”

Danceworks Performance Company, Skylight Music Theatre, Milwaukee Opera Theatre and Chant Claire Chamber Choir: Carmina Burana

Carl Orff’s sensational cantata, four companies, choreography by Dani Kuepper, stage direction by Jill Anna Ponasik in the Cabot Theatre, and with performances March 15-31, plenty of opportunities to see it all… just imagine!

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Winter 2019 Art Museum Preview ::BY HARRY CHERKINIAN

Urban farming, the Great Lakes and Wisconsin art and its artists are all topics that fill the frames and set the sculptor’s wheel in motion with upcoming Milwaukee-area art exhibits.

“Growing Place: A Visual Study of Urban Farming”

MSOE’s Grohmann Museum features one of the latest trends to emerge worldwide, and it began right here in Milwaukee. Urban farming has become the latest method to feed growing populations and redevelop vacant, blighted urban areas. Will Allen founded the Growing Power urban farm in Milwaukee in the early 1990s, and the exhibit (which runs through April 28) focuses on Milwaukee and how urban farming has expanded to other cities, such as New Orleans and Detroit and to places like Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. Here’s a chance to look at the past, present and future of growing food in cities. Check out the Gallery Night Event on Friday, Jan. 18, 5-9 p.m.

“Alexis Rockman: The Great Lakes Cycle”

Artist Alexis Rockman began a research tour of the Great Lakes region in 2013, resulting in a cycle of five oil, alkyd and acrylic paintings that measure six feet by 12 feet. His focus is on the changes—ranging from physical to ecological—that have affected the Great Lakes throughout the centuries. Rockman has called his work “natural-history psychedelia,” with a surreal sense of realismmeets-theatricality as if Salvador Dalí decided to paint outdoors. But his social observations and commentary are stark and foreboding; the rise of industrialism and how it affects the land and water are examined, as is human invasion—quite literally, with a crashed, submerged airplane. Plenty to ponder while considering the fate of our Great Lakes. At the Haggerty Museum of Art Feb. 8-May 19.

“Bouguereau & America”

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905) was one of the most popular artists during America’s Gilded Age, a time when consumption and capitalism became fashionable. Owning a Bouguereau was a sign you were on top. From the late-1860s to the early-1900s, his popularity grew steadily for his realistic genre paintings, steeped in tradition and dismissed by the Impressionist avant-gardists.

Forty of the French academic painter’s works will be on display in the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Baker/Rowland Galleries Feb. 15-May 12. This is the first major Bouguereau exhibition since the 1980s, when a revival of figure painting reignited interest in the artist who was deemed one of the most significant salon painters of his generation.

There are also several ongoing exhibitions you can still catch during the first several months of the new year.

“Fore and Aft: A Vitreous View of Time”

The art of glass and sculpture is featured in the works of three Wisconsin artists: Eoin Breadon, Beth Lipman and Jeremy Popelka, who explore the relationship between glass and light, form and time using architectonic forms, Dutch still lives and Irish storytelling for inspiration. Through March 31 at the Museum of Wisconsin Art, West Bend.

“Forward 2018: A Survey of Wisconsin Art Now” This is a statewide, juried exhibition featuring artwork created by Wisconsin artists. Out of 458 submitted works, 45 were chosen to represent Wisconsin art today. The exhibition goes on through April 14 at the Charles Allis Art Museum.

“House of Risk”/ “Play (things)”

Two exhibits concurrently running through Jan. 27 at the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum are “House of Risk,” which looks at the histories, materials and textures of the Villa’s rooms; and “Play (things),” which examines how rules affect the world of architecture and how they can be rewritten to create new ideas in both form and production.

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::A&E

Brought to you by The Milwaukee Art Museum

LINDSEY ABENDSCHEIN

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

Rehearsal for ‘Matilda’

FIRST STAGE’S ‘MATILDA’ A TIMELY, UPLIFTING TALE OF EMPOWERMENT ::BY BLAINE SCHULTZ

atilda The Musical is the story of a young girl who uses her wits to face the oblivious adults who seem to block her every path. Based on a 1988 story

by Roald Dahl, best known for writing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, First Stage artistic director Jeff Frank calls it an uplifting tale of empowerment, learning the value of words and stories in the battles against injustice.

In casting Tim Minchin’s Tony Award-winning musical, First Stage chose two casts and three actors in the title role (Taylor Arnstein, Reese Bell and Marina Evans). Frank is confident in his homegrown talent. “We have so many amazingly talented young people that have developed strong skills through our [Theater] Academy programming,” he says. “They bring a lot to the table, and then we work to continue their training through rehearsals; it becomes a natural extension of their training. The only major difference in rehearsing a typical professional production is that we have two casts of young performers to get ready, so it is critical to track changes from one cast to another as we move through the rehearsal process.”

The precocious title character rises above challenges presented by her parents and headmistress, finding allies in her teacher and fellow students to control the narrative of her life. According to Frank, “casting Matilda was about finding young actresses with a great combination of skills—being able to sing, act, dance and have the work ethic to take on the challenge. We were lucky to find three remarkable young ladies that continue to prove to be up to the challenge on all levels.”

The dance numbers are choreographed by the Milwaukee Ballet’s Jayne and Michael Pink.

Director Frank’s connection to First Stage goes back to 1996, when he began there as education director and associate artistic director. His vision may seem simple, but there is a track record to back it up.

“Working with an actor of any age takes insight. It is the role of the director to figure out how to successfully communicate and collaborate with each actor—all of whom bring different backgrounds, levels of experience and communication styles,” he says.

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Finding a ‘Strength of Purpose’

Frank recalls past actors who came up through the First Stage program. “So many amazing young people have impressed me in the classroom or in auditions and have gone on to great things locally and nationally. I can remember Kat Wodtke as a third-grader in my creative drama classes demonstrating such a strong emotional connection to our improvisational work. Her work now as an adult continues to shine. Jeremy Tardy showed such a great spark as a 9 or 10-year-old that I cast him in a musical. That spark, and an incredible work ethic, led to his studying at Julliard, and he is currently appearing in the Netflix series ‘Dear White People’ and HBO’s ‘Ballers,’ among other things.”

“I just heard from another former student, Conlan Ledwith, who first appeared in 12 Days—A Milwaukee Christmas,” Frank continues. “He will be appearing in Sweeney Todd at South Coast Rep this summer. And there are so many more out there doing great work—and not just in theater. We encounter so many young people that come to First Stage’s Theater Academy and find a strength of purpose for themselves and a desire to make a difference in the world.”

Some projects are condensed versions of full-length Broadway productions. In the case of Matilda, the rich and complex story deserves to be told in its entirety. Frank explained why he thought it would be a good fit for First Stage. “I put together each season with input from our programming and community engagement committee and our artistic team. I’d seen Matilda twice on Broadway, and I was convinced it was a show that we needed to do, so once it became available, we jumped at the opportunity.”

Entertainment value aside, Matilda’s relevance may be in the power of an individual (in this case, a young girl) to face up to an aggressor (a bullying teacher). Frank characterizes the story as funny and clever—at turns dark and hopeful. His idea First Stage of a successful Matilda The Musical production? “Observing families Marcus Center’s and classrooms Todd Wehr Theater exhilarated by the Jan. 1 - Feb. 24 production and having conversations about their shared experience at the show. In this day and age, with so many of us looking at our devices, it is so nice to give people a reason to look up, to come together and to experience the power of a great story being told.”

First Stage presents Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical Jan. 1-Feb. 24 at the Marcus Center’s Todd Wehr Theater, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, call 414273-7206 or visit firststage.org. Matilda is highly suitable for audiences age 8 and up.

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::THISWEEKINMILWAUKEE

Whips

FRIDAY, DEC. 28

Whips w/ New Age Narcissism and Devil’s Teeth @ The Cooperage, 8 p.m.

Members of Whips have done time in bands like Red Knife Lottery, Space Raft, Call Me Lightning and Hot Coffin, which gives you a sense of what they sound like: rock ’n’ roll in its fiercest, more pure distillation. And the group more than lives up to its impressive pedigree. Their 2017 album The Ride was one of the city’s meatiest, most fulfilling rock records in years. At this cross-genre bill Whips will be joined by two Milwaukee acts that seem to come from completely different worlds: New Age Narcissism, the ambitious hip-hop collective with a love of all things profound, and Devils Teeth, a surfy, cowpunk-inspired rock band with a ripping live show.

Keith Pulvermacher w/ Zach Pietrini @ The Back Room at Colectivo, 8 p.m.

Milwaukee heartland rocker Keith Pulvermacher headed down to Nashville to record his latest album, 45 Story, a collection that updates the classic rock of acts like Tom Petty and the Allman Brothers with the contemporary spirit of guys like Dierks Bentley and John Mayer. On stage, Pulvermacher’s known to toughen up the adult-alternative radio sensibilities of his studio albums, leading his band through driving, guitar-drenched jam sessions. Fellow Milwaukee singer/songwriter Zach Pietrini shares the bill with him at this album release show.

The Delta Routine @ Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, 8 p.m.

For years Milwaukeeans never had to wait too long between shows from The Delta Routine, a band that specialized in raw, rootsy rock ’n’ roll tailored to fans who always preferred The Rolling Stones to The Beatles. They were one of the city’s most prolific live bands. But it’s been two years since the group last played together, which lends an air of excitement to this comeback show. The band has promised two sets covering material from all four of their albums.

SATURDAY, DEC. 29 Playboi Carti w/ Reggie Bonds, Lucien Parker and DJay Mando @ The Rave, 8 p.m.

A twitchy little thing, Playboi Carti’s self-titled 2017 debut showcased the Atlanta rapper’s minimalist approach to rapping (he doesn’t have “verses” in the traditional sense) and his gift for weird, sticky beats that worm their way into your head whether you’d like them to or not. It contained one of that summer’s most memorable rap hits, “Magnolia,” a song that spawned countless freestyles and viral videos. But even that record seems tame compared to Carti’s audacious 2018 follow-up Die Lit, a more extreme record with production that sounds piped in from an experimental cartoon world. Pitchfork called it “music that fundamentally recalibrates the brain’s reward centers,” and sure enough, there’s something oddly addictive about all those loopy synthesizers and repetitive hooks. To focus too much on Carti’s mumbly, unlyrical flow is to miss the point—he’s one of only a small handful of rappers in his commercial sphere who’s doing something truly new.

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SATURDAY, DEC. 29

The Gufs w/ Brian Vander Ark @ The Pabst Theater, 7 p.m.

During the great alternative-rock boom of the ’90s, when major labels were snatching up unsigned bands at an unprecedented clip, success suddenly seemed within reach for many Milwaukee bands, but only a few actually made it to the majors. One was The Gufs, a pop-leaning alternative quartet who parlayed their local popularity and a trio of solid independent albums into a stint on Atlantic Records. The label released their 1996 commercial breakthrough, which was drenched in the buzzy, distorted guitars of the era and yielded the radio hits “Smile” and “Crash (Into Me).” The band broke up a few years later, after the release of their second Atlantic album, 1999’s Holiday From You, but since reuniting in 2006 they’ve played to adoring crowds, especially around Milwaukee, and they should find particularly enthusiastic ones this weekend at this pair of shows commemorating the band’s 30th anniversary. They’ll be joined at each show by Brian Vander Ark of The Verve Pipe. (Also Sunday, Dec. 30.)

SUNDAY, DEC. 30

Trans-Siberian Orchestra @ Fiserv Forum, 3 and 8 p.m.

We can’t pretend to understand the mindset of the many Trans-Siberian Orchestra fans who see the group every time they tour through the city each year, but it must be at least a little bit of a bummer for them when the band comes after Christmas instead of before the holiday. Consider these shows, the group’s first at the new Fiserv Forum, one last concentrated dose of Christmas cheer before the New Year arrives. Even though Trans-Siberian Orchestra founder and composer Paul O’Neill died last year, the band’s progged-out, pyrotechnicsheavy interpretations of holiday classics remain enormously popular.

SATURDAY, JAN. 5

Locate Your Lips Listening Party @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.

Kenny Baldwin was a jazz drummer by training, but he always felt comfortable in the world of rock, too. He owned the legendary Downtown club The Starship that served as the home base for the city’s punk scene in the ’80s, and along with bassist Andy Cavaluzzi and guitarist Jim Eannelli, he also had his own band Locate Your Lips, an unusual project that drew from the sounds of punk, new wave and prog-rock. After Baldwin died in 2015, Eannelli began piecing together a new Locate Your Lips album, working from recordings from a live radio broadcast and a previously unreleased album. There was so much material to the project ballooned into a double CD. At this free listening party, the band will play the album and share memories of Baldwin.

Trevor Noah @ The Riverside Theater, 7:30 and 10 p.m.

Taking over “The Daily Show” from Jon Stewart, who pioneered the brand of smart, loaded political comedy that now dominates late night, was never going to be easy for anybody. And, sure enough, the show has lost some of its cultural clout since it was taken over by South African comedian Trevor Noah in 2015. Each night, it can be counted on to give, at best, the third or fourth funniest take on the latest political outrage, but if nothing else Noah has proven a charismatic host, and he’s given the show a global perspective it lacked during the Stewart years. Noah rescheduled a pair of shows planned at the Riverside in November due to illness, but with Donald Trump entering the most shambolic phase of his presidency yet, Noah should have no shortage of timely topics to weigh in on when he performs these Trevor Noah makeup shows.

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

THEATRE

Children’s Book Drive During the month of January, Shepherd Express will be accepting gently used children’s books for ages 1-5.

BOOK DROP OFF: 207 E. Buffalo St., Suite 410, Milwaukee, WI 53202 Monday through Friday 8:30am – 5pm

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The Book of Mormon

Winner of nine Tony Awards including best musical, score, direction and book, The Book of Mormon returns to the Marcus Center for a one-week engagement. The popular musical features book, music and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone. Parker and Stone are the four-time Emmy Award-winning creators of the landmark animated TV series, “South Park.” The musical is choreographed by Tony Award-winner Casey Nicholaw and is co-directed by Nicholaw and Parker.

First staged in 2011, the musical makes light of various Mormon beliefs and practices, but ultimately endorses the positive, human power of love and service. The Book of Mormon follows two LDS missionaries attempting to preach their religion to Ugandan villagers. The earnest young men are challenged by the lack of interest of the locals, who are preoccupied with somewhat more pressing problems like AIDS,

famine and oppression. (John Jahn) Jan. 2-6 at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts’ Uihlein Hall, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, call 414-273-7206 or visit marcuscenter.org.

Comicality

According to Merriam-Webster, “comicality” refers to “the amusing quality or element in something.” Thus, it makes a most apropos title for a delightful musical revue replete with humorous songs and comedy routines timed perfectly to help us all release some holiday season stress during the waning days of 2018.

Comicality includes songs from such household names as Barry Manilow, Billy Joel and Rupert Holmes, tunes from some of New York City’s best comedy theater writers and additional material from Waukesha Civic Theatre’s very own “musical madmen,” as they put it. With an all-Wisconsin cast and the accompaniment of the “Comicality All-Star Band,” this revue is a great way to say good-bye to 2018 and kick off the new year in just the right mood. (John Jahn) Dec. 29-31 at Waukesha Civic Theatre, 264 W. Main St., Waukesha. For tickets, call 262547-0708 or visit waukeshacivictheatre.org.

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PAINTING BY GEORGE RAAB

A&E::VISUALART

SPONSORED BY

Peter Scott’s ‘Future City’ at the Suburban ::BY SHANE MCADAMS

A

UNVEILING WISCONSIN’S LOST MASTER, GEORGE RAAB

G

::BY DAVID LUHRSSEN

eorge Raab (1866-1943) is an excellent 20th century Wisconsin artist whose name is almost forgotten and whose work has largely been tucked away. A trove of his paintings and prints have recently surfaced and a good sample of the paintings are on display in “George Raab: Wisconsin’s Master of Early Modernism.” It’s the first time his work has been shown since a 1996 exhibit at Neenah’s Bergstrom-Mahler Museum.

Raab came from the state’s Germanic cultural heritage and was open from early days to the modernist currents rippling through Europe’s academies. Born in Sheboygan, he went to Germany for his education and studied in Weimar. After returning to Wisconsin, he founded the Society of Milwaukee Artists, taught at the Milwaukee Art Students League and became a curator at the Layton Gallery of Art. At least one undated painting in the current exhibit, Woman Near a Lake, is a window onto Raab’s early influences. Depicting a woman in white against a placid lake scene rendered in summery hues, the oil on board shows little interest in Impressionistic plays of light but an awareness of the color block composition of Japanese printmaking that was seminal to early modernism. From My Studio Window (1897) is opposite in emotional tone and subject but not necessarily in form. Painted in Sheboygan, the oil on canvas represents his hometown in bleak blocks of grays and browns. The industrial city is draped under dirty winter snow with black bare trees and telegraph poles shivering against the sky. The view suggests Raab’s awareness of the nascent Ash Can School whose painters favored urban grit over Arcadian landscapes.

Many of the oils and watercolors in “Wisconsin’s Master of Early Modernism” place Raab among the Midwest regionalists prominent in the 1930s. Among them is an almost cubist farm scene whose geometrically rigid human structures—a familiar Wisconsin red barn and silo—contrast with the fluid shapes of green and amber fields. He also celebrated the era’s industrial optimism through paintings of factories, industrial sites and bridges, often from unconventional perspectives. In one untitled watercolor, a giant grain elevator is framed with a proscenium of tree branches in a touch of 19th-century Romanticism brushing against 20th century industry.

George Raab: Wisconsin’s Master of Early Modernism is on display through Feb. 1 at Landmarks Gallery, 231 N. 76th St.

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ll art lives on a hypothetical spectrum of receptivity, with frontloaded impact on one end and back-loaded on the other. Frontend interactions, as I’ve termed them, are usually sensational experiences providing quick and immediate satisfaction. They’re kind of the refined sugar of visual consumption. Think: street art, pop art, or neo-expressionism—you get it, you’re satisfied and you’re off looking for more.

The back-enders metabolize more slowly, but they carry the potential for mental nutrition that only prolonged engagement itself can generate.

The work in Peter Scott’s exhibition “Future City” is fairly unremarkable at first. A back-ender, to be sure, suggesting either an absence of content, or, as it turns out, the possibility of latent presences only waiting to emerge. Seven unframed, matte prints, all between 24 and 30 inches, and one transparency covering a single large window in the gallery, eventually begin to release the fundamental oppositions that are the source of that slow-burning nutrition: interior/exterior; within/without; public/private; single/multiple; and, of course, absence/presence.

The polarity from these opposites ignites the static content and propels a jet of subsequent theoretical takeaways.

Most of the prints engage these dualities through the use of tagging or graffiti in the extreme foreground, formally as repoussoirs, but performatively as proscenia.

Untitled (High Line) shows a leisurely couple strolling the fashionable boardwalk above New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, and engaged in romantic and theatrical flanerie. But while it’s performed, the act also feels stolen because of the voyeuristic point-of-view. We peer at the couple through loopy spray-painted tags and a bar of what appears to be digital dialogue boxes on the right. This puts the couple inside and outside—inside one context, but outside countless others working on them and the impressions they broadcast.

The gap between the mundaneness of Untitled (Go Away) and its elegantly dramatic ordering of contexts builds into a masterpiece of unexpected incongruity.

What initially appears to be a slightly overexposed photo of a sterile-looking conference room mushrooms into much more. The words “NO ONE CAN AFFORD THIS… GO AWAY” are soon noticed. It is common variety anti-gentrification vandalism that we often see sprayed on New York City condos, but in this case it’s on an inside wall. The result of a break-in, or a layer in Photoshop? The graffiti sits in between two windows beyond which a kaleidoscope of additional architectural interiors and exteriors unfold. On top of it all (literally), the diamond-shaped window of the Suburban’s own front door almost goes unnoticed in the foreground (or on the surface) of the print. This added element finally compresses formal space into physical space, merges the site of the exhibition into the theoretical realm of its subject matter, and blurs the lines between our safely enclosed private fantasies and the more unsettled and ubiquitous public realities that envelop them.

The clear vinyl overlay on the main window happened to provide the show’s most demonstrable and revelatory metaphor. Lights, windows and cameras are supremely good at this, just ask any 17th century Dutch painter. Instead of New York, Untitled (Interior with viewing panel) channels the eye out of the gallery space, past another interior-with-conference-table, and out onto Fifth Street in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point. It also happened to channel my thoughts, as well as the thoughts of Michelle Grabner, the Suburban’s proprietor, into a rhizomic and energetic discussion about places, spaces, sites and rituals; public and private performance; Los Angeles, New York, Milwaukee; and, ultimately, about art as an invisible spirit that suffuses every and all aspects of existence but is at last frustratingly difficult to control and objectify. This is art’s greatest asset but also its most tragic limitation. And it’s all demonstrated on the back-end of one’s persistent commitment to Peter Scott’s “Future City,” whose gifts don’t come with the sugar-high payoff of a visual spectacle; but with the mental satisfaction that comes from a balanced diet of vision, vigilance, contradiction, and contingency.

Not cloyingly sweet, but very good for you in the end.

Peter Scott’s Future City is on display through Feb. 10 at the Suburban, 2901 N. Fratney St. SHEPHERD EXPRESS

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A&E::FILM 7. Cold War

A quietly devastating romance shot in gorgeous blackand-white, Pawel Pawlikowski’s film follows mismatched lovers torn apart first by communism and later by capitalism. Much like the Polish folk songs heard throughout, Cold War takes a tragic story of heartbreak and horror and transforms it into something beautiful and timeless.

8. The Death of Stalin ‘Isle of Dogs’

Already the premiere political satirist of his era, In the Loop director and Veep creator Armando Iannucci pulls off his most impressive feat yet, turning the real-life, corpsestrewn power struggle that followed Josef Stalin’s sudden death into a lacerating and disturbingly relevant farce.

9. Burning

An oblong mystery about a South Korean slacker (Yoo Ah-in) who becomes obsessed with a beautiful but flighty ex-classmate (Jun Jong-seo) and her wealthy boyfriend (Steven Yeun), Lee Chang-dong’s strangely chilly film is powerfully enigmatic and immaculately constructed.

‘Mandy’

‘You Were Never Really Here’

‘Burning’

THE BEST and THE WORST of 2018 Any year a new Orson Welles movie debuts is a good year for cinema, so no matter the ups and downs of the release schedule, at least the existence of the master director’s unfinished final film The Other Side of the Wind provides 2018 with an undeniable saving grace. Welles is still showing up the Hollywood hacks more than 30 years after his death, and while his restless genius and maverick spirit may feel like a thing of the past, film critic Daniel Barnes found 10 reasons to feel good about the state of cinema in 2018—as well as five reasons to push the panic button.

THE TOP 10 FILMS OF 2018 1. First Reformed

Ethan Hawke gives the performance of the year as a tormented minister confronting oblivion in Paul Schrader’s story of environmental and existential anguish. First Reformed feels like the culmination of Schrader’s entire life and career, blending the raw intimacy of Robert Bresson, the scathing despair of Ingmar Bergman and all his own sensual and spiritual obsessions.

2. Mandy

In a far superior alternate universe, Panos Cosmatos’ psychedelic revenge fantasy plays on the most gigantic IMAX screens imaginable, while the latest Marvel releases debut in 75 theaters before getting dumped to VOD. The prog-metal outrageousness of Mandy is established when King Crimson’s “Starless” both plays over and gets listed in the opening credits, while Nicolas Cage offers his once-a-decade reminder of why we ever cared.

3. The Favourite

Director Yorgos Lanthimos takes a lean, witty script by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara about conniving women and weak men and imbues it with a pitiless absurdism that is peculiarly Lanthimos-ian. The result feels like a ridiculously opulent and darkly Kubrick-ian cross between Dangerous Liaisons and All About Eve. 26 | D E C E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 8

4. You Were Never Really Here

We have become so spoiled by the greatness of Joaquin Phoenix that barely anyone batted an eye when he gave three excellent lead performances in 2018. The best of the bunch came in Lynne Ramsey’s scarred and fractured story of a violent, demon-plagued veteran who rescues stolen girls for a living.

5. Isle of Dogs

If Wes Anderson’s blend of clinical skill and warming sadness has always hit you in that Nick Drake sweet spot, his stop-motion animated Isle of Dogs is an elaborately embossed tchotchke made for your cinematic shelf. It’s another Anderson masterwork of careful world-building, impeccable craftsmanship and messy emotional payoffs.

6. Madeline’s Madeline

Led by a ferocious performance from Helena Howard, Josephine Decker’s film crackles with an unpredictable energy from the first moments and rarely lets up, forcing us to determine from scene to scene and shot to shot whether we’re watching a fantasy or a documentary, an acting exercise or an exhibition of mental illness.

10. Mission: Impossible—Fallout

Human special effect Tom Cruise plays superspy Ethan Hunt for the sixth time, and while nothing in Christopher McQuarrie’s Fallout should feel unfamiliar to anyone remotely aware of the Mission: Impossible bag of tropes, it’s still the freshest and most fun action movie of 2018.

AND THE BOTTOM FIVE 1. Gotti

Klutzy filmmaking usually provides some level of schadenfreude fun, but never has ineptitude been less entertaining than in Kevin Connolly’s hopelessly muddled biopic.

2. Fifty Shades Freed

Putrid even by the subterranean standard set by the first two entries in the Fifty Shades franchise, this trilogy ender had the temerity to end with a “heartwarming” montage of its abusive protagonists.

3. A Wrinkle in Time

Publicist-turned-director Ava DuVernay had the entire universe rooting for her big-budget adaptation of the Madeleine L’Engle novel, but the result was garish and empty.

4. Green Book

The most malodorous awards bait of 2018, Peter Farrelly’s rancid road movie is MAGA for white liberals. Mahershala Ali survives with a shred of dignity intact, but Viggo Mortensen may never recover.

5. Deadpool 2

More snot-nosed nihilism and fangless meta-commentary from Marvel’s “merc with a mouth,” once again played by Ryan Reynolds as a homicidal rape-joke comedian.

Daniel Barnes is a film critic for the Sacramento News & Review and a member of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle.

‘First Reformed’

For David Luhrssen’s best and worst films of 2018, visit shepherdexpress.com.

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

A&E::FILM

Alfred Hitchcock: Master of Duplicity? ::BY STEVE SPICE

T

he acclaim of Vertigo as the top film of the 20th century by the British Film Institute added a new wrinkle to the legacy of Alfred Hitchcock. The master of mystery was now recognized as a master filmmaker delving into the vagaries of human nature through vivid characterization. Maxim De Winter (Rebecca) and Norman Bates (Psycho) remain more fascinating than the situations in which they find themselves. The great Hitchcock films contain richly developed characters trapped in delusions or fantasies often of their own making, but always expressing the distaff side of the director’s fantasy life. Hitchcock is probably the screen’s most subtle chameleon, underscoring his characters with his own private fantasy world.

Hitchcock uses duplicity as a subtly ambiguous tool, concealing the understated duality that often conceals his characters’ hidden motivations.

The leading character in Vertigo is a fraud. The threatening spouse in Suspicion becomes helplessly benign.

Notorious’ duped husband must try to kill his duplicitous spouse. In Hitchcock’s first great American film, Rebecca, the second wife’s suspicion is repudiated. In these and many Hitchcock films, the identity of the characters becomes subordinate to the powerful psychological contradictions that have long tantalized Hitchcock’s audience. Biographer Donald Spoto defines the duality in Hitchcock’s screenplays as the yin and yang of opposing conflicts within the characters themselves. The murdering uncle in Shadow of a Doubt threatens his unsuspecting niece. The most intriguing character in Strangers on a Train proposes a psychopathic bargain with his unsuspecting acquaintance. Rebecca’s malevolent Mrs. Danvers tries to maintain the illusion of a non-existing happy first marriage. Their fascination is that they always remain slightly out of reach.

Yet, in Hitchcock’s finest films, the characters remain subordinate to the director’s visual imagination and are often subjected to the elusive power of the director’s personal fantasies.

The airtight conception of Hitchcock’s vision gives his films their universal allure. Hitchcock’s obsession with beautiful blondes and his furtive imagination only enhanced Ingrid Bergman in Spellbound and Notorious, while Grace Kelly would never again be as seductive as in SHEPHERD EXPRESS

Rear Window. Even the taciturn Eva Marie Saint achieves a new sexuality in North by Northwest.

Cary Grant and Claude Rains would never be as sinister as they were in Notorious.

The magic of Hitchcock’s direction is evident in the distinctive dreamlike quality his stars brought to the screen; their elusive eroticism seems drawn from the director’s own suppressed fantasy world. Yet, if Hitchcock’s movies were no more than his personal dreams, fears and inhibitions, he would not achieve his current status as one of the screen’s great directors. Drawing deeply from the reservoir of human emotion and dreams, his films convey a universal quality which explains his undiminished popularity.

Even early films such as The Lady Vanishes and 39 Steps, treasures from his early British years, have enjoyed revived recognition. If Hitchcock’s romantic dreamlike obsession with his private fantasies took an unfortunate turn when he victimized Tippi Hedren in The Birds and Marnie— because she could not show affection for a bulbous old man—we can forgive the unfortunate lapse for the sake of the cinematic result.

Currently, Hitchcock’s legacy has taken a new dimension, largely from his trio of masterpieces from the late 1950s.

These films demonstrate a remarkable similarity in the development of Hitchcock’s concept of an illusionary reality independent from realism. All three films portray dominant nonexistent characters. In North

by Northwest, Cary Grant is forced to become the artificially created Roger Thornhill and must elude dangerous foreign agents while romancing Eva Marie Saint. He plays his non-character to perfection.

In Psycho, the audience is terrified by a murderously non-existent, long dead Mrs. Bates. But the terminally psychotic Norman has created her with vivid intensity in this most cinematically innovative entry in the Hitchcock canon.

Vertigo is in a class of its own. Madeline is an artificial creation, but the “Madeline world” described by one reviewer is so pervasive that, when James Stewart seeks to recreate her, the audience shares his anticipation of her resurrection, having literally brought back from the dead a lost beloved. The magic of this subtle masterpiece has often confused film historians who prefer to look at cinematic innovation—of which Vertigo offers little. Even the dream sequence seems artificial.

But Vertigo demonstrates once and for all that, if Hitchcock’s films were only incarnations of his own dreams and wishes, they would have had lesser appeal. As Spoto wisely pointed out, “He expressed those elusive images and half-remembered dreams in terms that moved, astounded, delighted and aroused awe from millions around the world.” Perhaps Hitchcock’s movies retain their appeal not only from their emotional universality, but from the tacit realization that reality in a great film has a life of its own. The greatest Hitchcock films contain an uncanny magnetism which challenges our sensory perceptions while enlarging our capacity to dream.

[ FILM CLIPS ] Holmes & Watson PG-13 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s private detective, Sherlock Holmes, and by association, Dr. Watson, are frequently depicted on-screen. This version, starring Will Ferrell as Holmes and John C. Reilly as Watson, distinguishes itself by casting them as bumbling and lucky idiots. When Queen Victoria is threatened by an unknown assassin, Holmes and Watson urgently search for her would-be killer. They make fools of themselves at a state function, then accidentally knock the queen unconscious. With inspired comedy, we could enjoy skewering these icons, but here there’s little more to appreciate than excellent costumes and sets. (Lisa Miller)

Vice R This political satire, penned and directed by Adam McKay, introduces a young Dick Cheney as lost and lacking focus. His behind-the-scenes abilities begin to surface when Cheney lands an internship for conservative Illinois congressman Donald Rumsfeld. In time, Rumsfeld persuades President Gerald Ford to make Cheney his chief of staff. Years later, Cheney is tapped

by George W. Bush to be his vice president. After confirming he will function as a willing puppet-master for Bush, Cheney accepts. As V.P., Cheney works to expand the president’s powers.

Bale’s performance as Cheney (over a 40-year career), has been roundly applauded, but the script fails to explain either Cheney’s beliefs or actions. (L.M.)

[ HOME MOVIES / NOW STREAMING ] n Un Traductor

Set in the 1980s and early ’90s, Un Traductor opens with archival footage of Mikhail Gorbachev’s visit to Cuba. In the airport crowd, greeting the Soviet leader, is Malin, a young professor at Havana University’s Russian department. He’s happily married and lives in a modern home that would not be out of place in a gated American suburb. The grocery shelves are well stocked and gasoline is cheap and plentiful.

Un Traductor, by directors Rodrigo and Sebastián Barriuso, traces the changes in Cuba and in Malin. He is irritated when yanked from college and assigned to translate for Russian children, survivors of Chernobyl sent to Cuba for treatment. He becomes a storyteller and grows as a person. Meanwhile, Cuba sinks into bare shelves and gas shortages as the Soviet Bloc dissolves and Soviet aid ends. Economic pressure causes Malin’s family to fracture in this unfailingly interesting dramatization of Cuban life.

n “The Outer Limits: Season Two”

The pre-Kirk William Shatner plays the astronaut commanding Project Vulcan, the first interplanetary mission. But something is strange about him after he returns from space. “Cold Hands, Warm Heart” is among the episodes of “The Outer Limits: Season Two” (1964-1965).

The hour-long science-fiction show included other familiar actors as well as screenplays by the likes of Harlan Ellison. Sometimes, the writing exceeded production values, but often enough, the directors worked well within tight budgets.

n The Black Windmill

Director Don Siegel (Dirty Harry) transferred his lickety-split, no-timeto-waste formula to the U.K. for this 1974 spy movie. In other words: tough guys, loose women and fast cars meet castles. Michael Caine endows the film with insouciant gravitas, that implacable seen-it-already cool that he perfected. The film places Caine’s MI6 agent in a scenario worthy of Hitchcock, chased between a Soviet ring (that kidnapped his son) and his superiors in a dangerous (and visually adept) web.

n The Serpent’s Egg

Shot in English, The Serpent’s Egg (1977) is Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s lone Hollywood film. David Carradine stars as a Jewish American in 1923 Berlin who falls into a world of trouble. Some of the cinematography mirrors the German Expressionist films of the setting. The sad cafes and tacky cabarets—and even the police—are suffused with a rising sense of fear. The white-on-black credits accompanied by scratchy old jazz surely inspired Woody Allen.

—David Luhrssen D E C E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 8 | 27

A&E::BOOKS

BOOK|REVIEWS

Compromising on Slavery Andrew Delbanco on how the unresolved problem became the Civil War ::BY DAVID LUHRSSEN

T

he United States was established on a compromise that proved unworkable. Although the word “slavery” never appeared in the U.S. Constitution, the issue was one of the problems facing its authors. Delegates at the constitutional convention from Northern states, where slavery had never taken deep root and was being phased out, were less comfortable with the institution’s preservation than delegates from the South, where slavery remained a pillar of the economy and the social order.

In The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War, Andrew Delbanco terms American unity a “political fiction” in the republic’s early decades. He exaggerates but only a little as he focuses on the increasing tension as slavery became an ongoing test case for interstate relations and federal authority. The mechanics of binding slave with free states was set in motion in Article 4 of the Constitution, calling for the return of any “Person held in service or Labour in one State” i.e. the obligation of free states to send escaped slaves back to their owners. The enforcement of that clause, always a source of friction, turned into a flashpoint with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act (1850), which strengthened penalties for aiding and abetting runaways. Along with competition by settlers to bring western territories into the Union as slave or free states, the 1850 legislation set the nation on the course toward Civil War. The War Before the War is a thoughtful meditation on the meaning of American history and the human condition. A professor of American studies at Columbia University, Delbanco writes reflectively on the contradictions embedded in the birth of the nation and in its founders. He reproduces a 1769 notice signed by Thomas Jefferson—essentially a personal ad seeking information on a runaway “Mulatto slave called Sandy.”

He remained a slave owner after penning his memorable thesis in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” As for the Constitution’s primary author, James Madison, he was observed holding forth “on the evils of slavery while being waited on by his slaves.”

Delbanco isn’t satisfied with enjoying the irony but searches for context. The “founders were born into a world in which slavery was widely regarded as a universal feature of human society,” he writes. In early America, large numbers of people were indentured servants held in what often amounted to a term of slavery. Moreover, most early Americans—and Delbanco lists convicts, beggars, children and women—“lived at the mercy of those wielding power over them.”

Although the Northern states became committed to banning slavery, support for abolition didn’t necessarily translate into racial harmony. Some Northern states prohibited settlement by free blacks or limited their civil rights. Delbanco explains: “Black Americans were thus caught between one region that wished to keep them as slave laborers and another that did not want them at all.”

The South’s fear that slavery would be abolished led to secession and Civil War, a conflict most commentators on both sides thought would end within weeks in a new set of compromises. Instead, the war continued for four years. On the Union side, abolition was not always the motivating factor. Early on, Congress passed resolutions denying any intention to interfere “with the rights of established institutions” in the rebellious states. Preserving the Union was the overriding objective, yet abolitionists saw the war as their opportunity and with reluctance, the U.S. Army finally admitted black volunteers. During the war, slaves were freed by federal forces as a matter of military necessity, preventing their use by Confederates to build military emplacements. They were put to work for the Union but their condition “was not often materially different from what it had been under slavery.”

In the end, slavery was abolished but the problem of racial disparity and animosity has not been resolved.

Delbanco warns against easy readings of history. Emancipation was not the inevitable result of the Civil War; the decisive Union victory at Gettysburg might have been a fluke; Lincoln might have been forced to compromise once again.

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‘Pioneer Wisconsin’ From the Settlers’ Perspective ::BY DAVID LUHRSSEN

I

n 1830, most of Wisconsin’s inhabitants were Native Americans. Twenty years later, they were outnumbered by settlers 50 to one, according to Michael E. Stevens. In The Making of Pioneer Wisconsin: Voices of Early Settlers, the Wisconsin State Historian Emeritus focuses on the settlers by examining the paper trail they left behind, largely through the letters they wrote and the diaries they kept. They arrived in large number from the 1830s through 1850s, the period covered here; they came from back east and down south and from several European nations, they spoke many languages and wrestled with the emergence of a distinct American culture.

The letters often told of the difficulty of the journey, especially the trans-Atlantic crossing from Europe. Some immigrants flocked to the growing cities on the Lake Michigan shore, but those intent on farming told stories similar to the man who made “a shanty to live in” before cutting logs for more permanent housing. The help of neighbors could usually be counted on. Not everyone wrote glowingly to the folks back home of what they found in Wisconsin. A Norwegian settler complained of the difficulty in finding employment and the many diseases “raging here” in the Upper Midwest.

Especially interesting are letters written to the territorial authorities arguing for and against prohibition of alcohol and slavery—the latter institution finding support among Southern settlers in mining country. Temperance never took hold in Wisconsin outside communities of New England Protestants and Wisconsin’s black population were allowed to petition for their rights. By the close of The Making of Pioneer Wisconsin, letter writers commented on how rapidly the newly formed state had changed and on the enterprising character of the immigrants who brought energy and ideas to the U.S. SHEPHERD EXPRESS

::OFFTHECUFF

Meet Levi, the Hospice Therapy Horse

OFF THE CUFF WITH SANDRAJEAN EBBEN AND KIM NIEBUHR ::BY CATHERINE JOZWIK

F

or the past three years, Levi, a 13-year-old, standard-breed retired racehorse, has been brightening the lives of the patients of Angels Grace Hospice in Oconomowoc, Wis. According to Kim Niebuhr, volunteer coordinator at Angels Grace, Levi is “the only certified, full-size pet therapy horse in Wisconsin.” Levi, along with another horse, Jess, live with Sandrajean Ebben and her husband on an eight-acre farm in Dousman, Wis. The couple have been raising horses for 40 years. Off the Cuff spoke with Ebben (SE) and Niebuhr (KN) about Levi and his remarkable therapy skills.

How did Levi become a therapy horse?

SE: My husband and I adopted Levi six years ago, when he was 7-yearsold and had just retired from racing. A few years ago, I read an article on this organization, Pet Partners, and how they were using a mini-horse as a therapy animal at a children’s hospital in the Chicago area. That really piqued my interest. Levi is very laid-back and doesn’t spook easily, so I thought, “I bet he’d be really good as a therapy animal.” I contacted Pet Partners’ Madison branch, and Levi went through a rigorous program to

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

become certified as a pet therapy horse.

KN: Levi started working with us in September 2015 and was such a hit with patients and their families that we decided to keep him. Due to insurance purposes, we can’t actually have a horse in the facility. Each patient’s room has a patio with French doors. Levi sticks his head (and a bit of his torso) through the door so people can pet him if they wish.

What was the process to becoming certified as a pet therapy animal like?

SE: As part of the training, people would make sudden movements, clang pots and pans and make other loud noises to try and startle Levi. Trainers would also mimic erratic behavior similar to those with cognitive disabilities. During the training, Levi just kind of slowly turned around—another horse would have been out of there! Per the requirements, animals must be bathed before they interact with patients. I also groom Levi frequently.

How has Levi made a positive impact on hospice patients and those with disabilities?

SE: I see the difference in people at Angels Grace when I bring Levi around. They all look pretty solemn, but then they see Levi and just light up. That’s pretty neat. I’ve taken Levi to Zacharias Acres, a day camp for kids with disabilities, and, once a year, I take him to Shorehaven, an Oconomowoc nursing home, for their mini-state fair. He’s a hit wherever he goes.

KN: This guy, he’s just the greatest. He poses for pictures—everyone wants to see our star horse!

Besides being a therapy horse, does Levi have other duties?

SE: He’s a busy boy. Besides being a therapy animal, Levi is my riding horse. He can’t do heavy dressage activities, because his stifles (knee bones) are shot from racing, but he can do light dressage and can go riding; I’ve been teaching him to pull a cart, too. Levi and I have quite a nice relationship.

Sandrajean Ebben with Levi

D E C E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 8 | 29

::HEARMEOUT ASK RUTHIE | UPCOMING EVENTS | PAUL MASTERSON

::ASKRUTHIE

SPONSORED BY

::RUTHIE’SSOCIALCALENDAR Dec. 28—Lesbian Pop-Up Bar: Madison Edition at One Barrel Brewing Company (2001 Atwood Ave., Madison): Head to Mad City for this installment of the popular parties. Brave the cold, grab a friend and head to the state capital for this 7 p.m. night of friendly fun.

Know Your Status.

Dec. 29—Madonna vs. Lady Gaga Dance Party at Mad Planet (533 E. Center St.): It’s diva-licious stand-off as the music of two iconic performers fills the dance floor from 9 p.m. to bar close. Hosted by DJ Frank Straka, this dance-off promises to be one for the books.

Get Tested.

FREE HIV AND STD TESTING AT OUR BRADY STREET LOCATION MONDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHTS. NO APPOINTMENT NEEDED.

BESTD C·L·I·N·I·C

BESTD Clinic, 1240 E. Brady Street Go to bestd.org for more information.

Make 2019 the Year of Loving You Dear Ruthie,

I’m a 38-year-old man, and I’m in the closet. I’m confused about being gay and lonely. Is it too late for me to find comfort in my own skin? Is it too late for me to find love? Is it just too late for me altogether?

Sad & Depressed, Mr. Lonely

Dear Friend,

Half-Off Your First Month at CoMotion Fitness $130 value for $65 WWW.SHEPSTORE.COM the

30 | D E C E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 8

It’s never too late to love yourself! Consider going to see a professional therapist to help you better understand and address whatever internal struggles you’re dealing with. Also, please be sure to utilize the many LGBTQ services the community offers. The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center offers two wonderful, free support groups you might be interested in: The Men’s Coming Out Group meets twice per month to discuss issues and address concerns men face in the coming out process.

Similarly, the Thoughtful Gay Men Meetup is a monthly group of men of all ages who discuss issues concerning the gay male experience.

The Milwaukee LGBT Community Center (1110 N. Market St., second floor; 414-271-2656; mkelgbt.org) is there to help, so take advantage of the programs they offer. Not only will you start to feel part of a community and more comfortable in your own skin, but you’ll make new friends and shake those feelings of loneliness. Once you take a few steps to improve your life, your emotional health and your overall well-being, you’ll begin to see how exciting and wonderful life can be as an openly gay man.

Take 2019 by the horns! Make it your resolution to make friends, create a support system and learn to love yourself. The rest will fall into place.

Dec. 29—Drag Matinee Presents Tammie Brown at Berlin Nightclub (954 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago): Head south to this tight nightclub for a great time. Friendly bartenders mix up frosty beverages, and Trannika Rex hosts a drag show featuring RuPaul icon Tammie Brown. Cute and kooky Tammie hits the stage at 10:30 p.m., with plenty of drinks and dancing afterward. If you haven’t been to Berlin Nightclub in a bit, this is a great reason to return.

Dec. 30—Pulling Back the Curtain: An Audition Workshop at Plymouth Church (2717 E. Hampshire Ave.): Thinking of attending the Milwaukee Generals audition day (in January)? Take this workshop and make all of your tryouts the best they can be. Presented by Mark Bucher of Boulevard Theatre, participants should prepare two monologues and come ready for constructive feedback. Free and open to public, seating is available for people to simply watch the auditions and learn from the feedback provided as well. To learn more and register, contact Mark Bucher at marksaysthankyouforwaiting@gmail.com.

Dec. 31—New Year’s Eve with the Divas of Mary’s at Hamburger Mary’s (708 S. Fifth St.): Kick off your New Year celebration with this 6 p.m. dinner and show. Your $25 ticket includes a choice of prime rib, salmon, stuffed Cornish game hen or vegetarian ratatouille, as well as the 8 p.m. drag spectacular and 9 p.m. champagne toast. Tickets are available through brownpapertickets.com.

Dec. 31—New Year’s Eve Shuffle at This Is It! (418 E. Wells St.): You’ll enjoy a new drink special every 30 minutes starting at 8 p.m. and running until 6 a.m. New Year’s Day (yes, you read that correctly). Enjoy complimentary champagne and party favors at midnight when the DJ arrives to kick things into an even higher gear.

Jan. 1—New Year’s Day Drag Brunch at Garage (1709 N. Arlington Place): Kick off 2019 with eggs and drags at one of your favorite Brady Street hot spots. Your $20 ticket gets you brunch, mimosa service, a swag bag and the show. Choose either the 11 a.m. or 1 p.m. show when purchasing your tickets at eventbrite.com.

Ask Ruthie a question and share your events at dearruthie@shepex.com.

Follow her on Instagram @ruthiekeester and on Facebook at Dear Ruthie.

Don’t miss her hilarious reality show on YouTube: “Camp Wannakiki!”

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

::MYLGBTQPoint of View

For LGBTQs, 2018 Was a Year of Anger and Optimism

2

018 was an emotional year for members of the LGBTQ community. The political pall hanging over the nation had many of us emotionally vacillating between anger, fear and frustration. We endured 10 numbing months of regime assaults on the LGBTQ community, especially against transgender rights.

Hate crimes surged for the third year in a row; this year by 17%. Nazis promoted “Angry Goys II,” a video game in which players shoot up a gay bar and kill Jews. The U.S. ranked thirdhighest for trans persons murdered. A Honduran asylum seeker, beaten in ICE custody, died of neglect. A trans Milwaukeean, Sasha Garden, was killed in Florida. Murders of gay children included Anthony Avalos, 10, tortured to death by his mother’s boyfriend. Jamel Myles, 9, committed suicide following bullying because he was gay. 2018 also marked the 40th anniversary of Harvey Milk’s assassination and the 20th of Matthew Shepard’s murder. It was the 30th anniversary of World AIDS Day. We read many obituaries in 2018, including those of AIDS research activist Mathilde Krim, actor/heartthrob Tab Hunter and Dykes on Bikes founder Soni Wolf. Locally, we lost author Tim Clausen, as well as BestD co-founder Chuck Poulson (aka Charlotte Lorraine), among others.

Mercifully, the bad news was tempered by hope and optimism.

In the Human Rights Campaign Municipality Equality Index survey of 506 U.S. cities, Milwaukee earned a perfect score of 100. After a year’s litigation, the ACLU won its case against the State of Wisconsin on behalf of two transgender state employees. In Milwaukee, the Common Council banned so-called “conversion therapy” for minors. In collaboration with LGBTQ advocacy groups, the Fire and Police Commission announced improved operating procedures vis-à-vis the trans community.

2018 marked the golden anniversary of gay bar This Is It!, the 40th of GAMMA, the HIT Bowling Tournament and SSBL’s Dairyland Classic Softball Tournament. It was Challenge Party’s 30th anniversary, the 25th jubilees of Outwords Books and QUEST magazine. Veterans for Diversity celebrated its 10th year, and the Milwaukee Gay Volleyball Association opened its 10th season.

The Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce announced the launch of its Business Leadership Academy and expanded its membership to nearly 600 businesses, corporations SHEPHERD EXPRESS

::BY PAUL MASTERSON

and organizations. Meanwhile, two new social groups formed, Pride Ride Wisconsin and Bi+.

PrideFest expanded to four days and boasted a record attendance of 45,400. More units marched in the Pride Parade than ever before, including, for the first time, a Milwaukee Police Department contingent. ARCW’s AIDS Walk raised more than $400,000, and Cream City Foundation awarded tens of thousands of scholarships to LGBTQ students and allies.

The Milwaukee Beer Barons entered into the international gay rugby organization.

NOVEMBER 2018’S “BLUE WAVE” ELECTION SAW VOTERS EMBRACE DIVERSITY. A MAN MARRIED TO A MAN BECAME GOVERNOR OF COLORADO AND A BISEXUAL WOMAN BECAME THE NATION’S SECOND LGBTQ U.S. SENATOR There were ownership changes in the bar scene with the old La Cage becoming LVL under original owner George Prentice and, as of New Year’s Day, Alan Ke takes over Woody’s Sports Bar. Both continue as LGBTQ destinations; LVL with a complete renovation, and Woody’s remaining essentially the same.

Finally, November 2018’s “Blue Wave” election saw voters embrace diversity. A man married to a man became governor of Colorado and a bisexual woman became the nation’s second LGBTQ U.S. Senator (the first is our own Tammy Baldwin). Elsewhere, numerous LGBTQs won seats in state and federal legislatures.

So, Happy New Year 2019 to all with hopes of positive things to come!

::BLACKBLUE&RAINBOW

Baby Fever Syndrome and the State of Surrogacy

Y

::BY CHRISTOPHER WALTON

ou walk into a living room with your plate of food at the family Christmas party. You expect to just walk in the room and eat, drink and be holy jolly. Instead, you are accosted by your biological clock.

A blink, a small smile, a few mouth bubbles from some very small lips looking up at you. It’s your cousin’s new baby. You lock eyes, and you feel yourself becoming parental.

After attempting to look away while eating, you eventually relent and spend the next three hours playing with the baby and completely forget the kids you brought with you to the party. (It’s just the three wine bottles you left in the car, which were supposed to get you through to the other side of the dinner and through at least one fight between your mom and aunts). But you forgot about them, because you’re head-over-heels in love with this tiny little person. The kid moves in with a final heart-tugging attack when she cuddles up and falls asleep in your arm. There’s nothing you can do now. You have BF, commonly known as Baby Fever.

I feel your pain. I suffer from BF as well. Side effects of BF are generally as follows: Swooning when you see a smiling child; a sense of peace when holding a sleeping baby on your shoulder; sudden amnesia about the reality of raising children, such as cost, attention and time; the family Christmas card pictures; the early morning videos of little kids stumbling out of bed and playing with toys. It really kicks into the highest gear during the holidays. I want a piece of that, too.

Thankfully, Wisconsin allows single LGBTQ individuals as well as couples to jointly adopt a child. Adoption doesn’t generally cost as much as surrogacy, and there are children waiting for warm hearts and loving homes ready for the raising. Wisconsin’s surrogacy laws, however, are a little blurry. According to the Wisconsin Bar Association, “Parties to surrogate-parenting arrangements typically enter into agreements that spell out each party’s expectations and responsibilities. However, Wisconsin law is insufficiently developed to ensure adequate enforcement of such agreements.”

Basically, if you make an agreement for a surrogate to have a child for you, the surrogate doesn’t have to give up her parental rights of the child. We’re going to need some legislative work on this ASAP. Other states have much easier surrogacy laws that are clearly defined. States like California, Illinois, Arkansas, Maryland, Oregon, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Washington (state and D.C.) all have forward-moving, progressive-thinking surrogacy laws making it easier for future parents (LGBTQ or not) to use a surrogate to have the children they want.

Thankfully, a lot of us in the LGBTQ community are lucky enough to have straight siblings, cousins and good friends who will gladly toss their kids to us—like Aaron Rodgers with the football and two seconds remaining in the fourth quarter—upon request. As the proud godfather of four, I try to be a part of their lives as much as I can. But, even when I come and shower them in my love, affection and all the candy and loud toys I can afford, it’s just not the same, because they aren’t mine, so to speak. I don’t get to tuck them in every night after hearing how busy their days were “at work” while they were on paw patrol or a firefighter or astronaut. You just don’t get that kind of work conversation from adults.

But godchildren do come with certain advantages; they can be returned when they need changing or their tummy hurts.

So, fellow sufferers of BF syndrome, if any of this sounds like you, I implore you to stay strong, because, one day, we, too, might very well join the ranks of overworked, underpaid and under-rested parents.

D E C E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 8 | 31

::MUSIC

For more MUSIC, log onto shepherdexpress.com

FEATURE | ALBUM REVIEWS | CONCERT REVIEWS | LOCAL MUSIC

Milwaukee’s 2019 New Year’s Eve Guide ::BY EVAN RYTLEWSKI

It still feels a little odd having a New Year’s Eve in Milwaukee without Jim Gaffigan. For the second year in a row the comedian is sitting out his customary New Year’s Eve performances here. But just as old traditions die, new ones are created, and this year’s New Year’s Eve calendar features a host of new happenings that could become future staples, including an enormous new EDM event, a bunch of dance parties and a spirited lineup of concerts. Gaffigan isn’t very funny anyway; here are dozens of other ways Milwaukeeans can treat themselves on Dec. 31.

Family Friendly Skating @ Red Arrow Park, 10 a.m.

It’s been years since the city hosted downtown fireworks, but that hasn’t stopped big crowds from gathering each year at Red Arrow Park, where there’s ice skating and concessions, including hot chocolate. The rink will be open 10 a.m. to 1 a.m.

The Harlem Globetrotters @ Fiserv Forum, 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.

The Bradley Center may be gone, but this Milwaukee New Year’s Eve tradition remains.

The referee-flummoxing Harlem basketball team will keep their decades-long streak of Dec. 31 appearances in Milwaukee alive with their debut appearance at the Fiserv Forum. We’re going to go out on a limb and predict the Globetrotters will win both of these matches.

Milwaukee Wave vs. St. Louis Ambush @ UW- Milwaukee Panther Arena, 3 p.m.

Fans at this Wave game against the St. Louis Ambush will receive a Robert Renaud bobblehead. We’ll be honest: We don’t know who Robert Renaud is either, but even if like most Milwaukeeans you don’t follow the city’s often-overlooked indoor soccer team all that closely, there are plenty of reasons to dip in for a game. This match will have an ’80s prom night theme and feature $3 beer and $2 soda, and tickets start at just $15.

New Year’s Eve Celebration @ The Domes, 6 p.m.

An uncertain future won’t stop the Mitchell Park Domes from ringing in the New Year with its annual family celebration. This year’s event will feature music from the Garlic Mustard Pickers, magic from Rick Allen, fire dancing from Prismatic Flame, a light show, face painting and music from DJ Mike Sherwood ahead of a 9 p.m. balloon drop. Admission is $10, or free for kids 2 and under.

New Year’s Eve at Noon @ Betty Brinn Children’s Museum, 10 a.m.

The New Year arrives especially early at this party tailored for very young kids, which wraps up early enough that parents will have plenty of time to prepare for a night that ends with something a little stronger than a juice toast. NYE continued on page 34 >

32 | D E C E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 8

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::::NYEGUIDE > NYE continued from page 32

Live Music, Comedy and Performance Horseshoes & Hand Grenades @ The Pabst Theater, 9 p.m.

Stevens Point is hardly considered a music hotbed, but the city has sired at least one popular touring draw: the bluegrass ensemble Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, who put a jammy spin on rustic roots music with instruments like the accordion, harmonica, fiddle, mandolin and dobro. The year they released their most recent record, The Ode. They’ll be joined at this show by Chicken Wire Empire and Sarah Vos of Milwaukee bluegrass favorites Dead Horses. Tickets are $25 in advance.

Radio Radio/DJ Dori Zori NYE Throwdown @ Club Garibaldi, 8:30 p.m.

Milwaukee new wave enthusiasts Radio Radio specialize in the perkiest, most synth-heavy songs of the ’80s, including hits by bands like Duran Duran, The Cure, INXS, Devo and Elvis Costello. For this New Year’s Eve party, they’ll be joined by Mike Benign for a tribute to The Cars, and by Radio Milwaukee’s resident new wave fanatic Dori Zori.

Shane Mauss @ The Underground Collaborativeective, 7:30 p.m.

Stand-up comedian Shane Mauss has done just fine for himself since leaving Milwaukee. In addition to “Jimmy Kimmel,” he’s appeared on the latest season of Comedy Central’s “This is Not Happening” and the new Epix comedy series “Unprotected Sets,” and hosted his own Netflix special. On the heels of a sold-out Midwest tour he returns to the city he loves for this New Year’s Eve show.

Dead Man’s Carnival @ Miramar Theatre, 9 p.m.

Building on their popular monthly showcases at the Miramar Theatre, the Milwaukee circus/burlesque/variety troupe Dead Man’s Carnival goes all out for their regular New Year’s Eve productions. As always the troupe’s dancers, fire-eaters and jugglers will be accompanied by the carnival’s house band, Prof. Pinkerton & The Magnificents, who specialize in vaudevillian Americana.

Selector Max, Asher Gray and Juiceboxxx @ High Dive, 9 p.m.

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Riverwest’s High Dive wraps up another year of excellent free shows with… one more excellent free show. Selector Max, Asher Gray and Juiceboxxx will provide the music at this party, set to last until early morning, while High Dive will provide the champagne toast, midnight balloon drop and free late-night breakfast.

Metal Chick’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve @ Shank Hall, 9 p.m.

The local metal site MilwaukeeMetalChick.com presents this New Year’s Eve show with two very heavy cover bands, the Motörhead tribute Killmister and the Iron Maiden tribute Aces High. Tickets are $12 and include snacks, champagne at midnight and giveaways.

The John Schneider Orchestra @ North Shore American Legion Post # 331, 9 p.m.

Once again The John Schneider Orchestra celebrates the end of another year with the music of years gone by. Joined by Claire Morkin and Mrs. Fun, Schneider will perform standards by giants like

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Cole Porter, Duke Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, Rodgers and Hart and the Gershwins, along with a little bit of tap dance and the requisite “Auld Lang Syne” at midnight. They’ve been saluting the American songbook in some form or another every New Year’s Eve since the late ’80s. There’s a suggested donation of $15 at the door.

De La Buena Sextet @ Jazz Estate, 7 p.m.

The Latin-jazz ensemble De La Buena are one of Milwaukee’s busiest bands in the summer, where they’re regulars at just about every outdoor festival worth its salt, but they don’t slow down much in the winter months, either. Following a set from guitarist Paul Silbergleit, organist Dan Schneck and drummer Jeremy Kuzniar at 8:30, the band will keep the crowd on its feet from 10:30-1:30 a.m.

The Majestics @ Club Timbuktu, 9:30 p.m.

A Milwaukee funk ensemble with a feverish live show, The Majestics pay homage to greats like James Brown, Rick James and Kool and the Gang. The band formerly known as Chocolate Ice 2 will dig deep into the funk and soul songbook at this show, where there will be drink specials and complimentary snacks throughout the night. It’ll be hard to beat the cover, too: There isn’t one.

Aluminum Knot Eye w/ Last Sons of Krypton @ Circle-A Café, 8 p.m.

The Riverwest punk venue Circle-A Café caters to music fans who prefer shows that begin at a somewhat reasonable hour, specializing in concerts that begin around 8. After Aluminum Knot Eye and Last Sons of Krypton kick off the evening on a loud note, DJs will keep the music going for the rest of the night.

ComedySportz New Year’s Eve Match @ ComedySportz, 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

Each New Year’s Eve, ComedySportz offers deluxe packages to its competitive comedy performances. The $35 admission includes free appetizers and unlimited soda and champagne. Both shows are family-friendly, and each will end with a countdown (at midnight for the late show, and 9:45 for the early show).

A Note on Transportation If you’re planning on using a ride-sharing service to get to the bars, you may be in store for some serious sticker shock. You haven’t seen surge pricing until you’ve seen it on New Year’s Eve. Thankfully, there’s an alternative.

As always, the Milwaukee County Transit System is offering free rides on all routes, starting at 8 p.m. and running until the end of service, with many routes extending their service until 4 a.m. Do yourself and everybody else on the roads a favor by leaving your car at home.

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

::::NYEGUIDE

DJs, Dancing and Destinations Milwaukee’s Biggest NYE Party @ Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, 8 p.m.

The Potawatomi Hotel & Casino always goes all out for its New Year’s Eve celebration, and this year’s is no exception. A crew of Chicago and Milwaukee DJs—DJ Cross, Bobby De Maria, DJ Goose and DJ King James—will take turns working the crowd on a mammoth, 2400-square-foot dance floor featuring a huge LED video screen and one of the biggest bars in the city.

Tickets ($49 in advance, $59 day of ) include a champagne toast, party favors, complementarycomplimentary coat check and free structure parking.

Stellar Spark New Year’s Eve ft. Dada Life @ The Rave, 8 p.m.

Milwaukee’s longest-running New Year’s Eve EDM blowout returns for its 16th year with a headlining performance from the Swedish electro-house duo Dada Life. As of press time, DJs Nate Derus and Colton Duwe are also on the bill, though it’s a safe bet quite a few more acts will be added soon—these things always feature an enormous lineup. Last year’s featured literally dozens of DJs.

Radiance NYE ft. Excision @ Wisconsin Center, 6 p.m.

For years Stellar Spark was Milwaukee’s highest profile New Year’s Eve destination for EDM fans, but this year it has some real competition from this ambitious upstart event. This massive blowout at the Wisconsin Ccenter’s third floor exhibition hall will feature Canadian dubstep star Excision, the Toronto EDM duo Zeds Dead and Denver DJ Bear Grillz, as well as Riot Ten, Whipped Cream and Spock. Planet Filth & DubHub Stage was recently added, featuring Porn and Chicken, Birthdayy Partyy, Sourpvtchkid, RiddimBoyz and more than a half dozen other acts. Advance tickets start at $59.

Brew Year’s Eve @ Milwaukee Athletic Club, 8 p.m.

This annual blowout at the Milwaukee Athletic Club regularly sells out. It features two floors of music, with performers including DJ Mighty Thor, DJ Soppa, DJ Dex, N!CO, and Listening Party, a huge light display, a four-hour premium open bar, professional photographers and a complimentary appetizer buffet. It’ll be followed by two official after- parties with free cover at Site 1A and Victor’s. Tickets start at $99, with VIP packages available.

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

Beyoncé vs. Rihanna Dance Party @ Turner Hall Ballroom, 9 p.m.

Years after hosting New Year’s Eve installments of The Get Down, Turner Hall Ballroom borrows another Mad Planet tradition, as DJ Frank Straka brings his popular Beyoncé vs.

Rihanna dance party to the historic venue.

He’ll spin music from the pop and R&B stars all night. $60 tickets include an open bar, champagne toast and party favors. $85 VIP tickets include other perks, including a complimentary coat check, balcony access, an appetizer buffet and a fancier vodka option at the open bar.

New YAMS Eve w/ DJ Bizzon @ Company Brewing, 10 p.m.

DJ Bizzon is one of Milwaukee’s great hiphop DJs, but he’ll be drawing from far more than rap at this six-hour, marathon New Year’s Eve spin, which promises to showcase six decades of music. The event will also include an appetizer buffet, a champagne toast at midnight, movie projections and a coat check. Tickets are $20.

Brew City Bombshells ““All That Glitters”” Gold NYE Party w/ DJ Claire Dactyl @ Cactus Club, 9 p.m.

DJ Claire Dactyl of Riverwest’s popular underwear dance party Pants Ooff Dance Off joins the Brew City Bombshells for this glittery celebration of the new year.

Between the $15 cover ($10 in advance or for those dressed in gold) and the Cactus Club’s tolerant, inclusive environment, this should be a safe and affordable alternative to some of the more expensive dance parties downtown.

New Year’s Eve Dance Party @ Mad Planet, 9 p.m.

DJ James Freshluggage joins Mad Planet for its annual New Year’s Eve dance party, which promises a night of music from the ’70s and ’80s through the present. It’ll feature complimentary food and a champagne toast, and go well into the morning (4 a.m.)

Cover is $15.

Victor’s 24-Hour NYE Party @ Victor’s, 3 p.m.

Victor’s is almost begging a certain Milwaukee journalist to write a “I Spent 24 Consecutive Hours at Victor’s” piece with this one. The storied dance club on Van Buren will be open from 3 p.m. Dec. 31 to 3 p.m. on Jan. 1. There will be dinner service, music from DJ Chris, $3 Skyy bombs, party favors, a champagne toast, complementarycomplimentary pizza (from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m.) and a complementarycomplimentary sloppy joe, sub sandwich and pastry buffet from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Good luck.

A Roaring ’20s New Year’s Eve @ Ambassador Hotel, 8 p.m.

A Royal NYE Party @ Red Lion Pub, 7 p.m.

District’s NYE 2019 Latin Party @ District on Water, 9 p.m.

NYE Dance Party ft. Mixtape @ Three Lions Pub, 7 p.m.

Playing off of the Ambassador Hotel’s gleaming art-deco décor, the hotel’s Roaring ’20s New Year’s Eve party returns for a second year. There will be a speakeasy with gaming (and an LED TV as a prize), live music from the 11-piece Southport Sound, and a midnight balloon drop and champagne toast. Overnight packages, including New Year’s Day brunch for two, are also available.

District turns over its dance floor to host Fredy Munoz and DJs Dmatic and Aztek for this Latin celebration of the new year. General admission is $30, but VIP options are available, including a $90 all-you-can-drink bracelet.

Winter Wonderland NYE Party @ Ugly’s Bar & Grill, 9 p.m.

Some of the city’s biggest club DJs—including Shaykenn, Gee-A, Soppa, Peter Pancake and Breezy—will be accompanied by a huge light and visual display at this party, which promises to go until after the sun comes up.

For those with amazing stamina, there will be an after-party starting at 6 a.m. featuring Jae Bea and Shaykenn.

NYE with Energy 106.9 @ Mikey’s, 9 p.m.

The soundtrack to many a car ride to the club, the dance station Energy 106.9 hosts this New Year’s Eve party. The $50 cover includes all-you-can-drink rail mixers, beer and wine until 1 a.m. DJs Steve Marxx and Roc will provide the music. VIP table reservations are available.

NYE 2019 @ No. 720, 9 p.m.

The DJ duo Wild N’ Reckless (featuring local club fixtures Mr. New York and DJ Eddie Reckless) will provide the soundtrack to this posh New Year’s Eve celebration on Milwaukee Street. VIP tables and bottle service are available.

Red Lion Pub’s New Year’s Eve celebration returns after two consecutive sold-out years. $60 VIP ticket packages include an open bar with name-brand mixers, a free dinner buffet, a midnight champagne toast, and complimentary Ian’s Pizza after midnight. Table packages are also available, as are $15 walk-in tickets, which include the complimentary grub but not the open bar.

Not to be confused with the similarly Irish-themed Red Lion Pub on Water Street, Shorewood’s Three Lions Pub hosts this dance party with music by the ’80s-loving cover band Mixtape. There’s no cover, but table reservations will be available, along with $50 VIP wristbands that include all-you-can-drink Smirnoff, Captain, Tanqueray, Bulleit and Crown cocktails.

NYE Bond Ball @ SafeHouse, 10 p.m.

Milwaukee’s premiere spy-themed bar pays homage to the world’s most beloved (and most dapper) fictional spy at this gala, which will feature a magician as well as a DJ. There will be cash prizes for the best-dressed attendees. Cover is $10 after 10 p.m., or free with a Marcus Rewards card.

New Year’s Eve @ Riverwest Public House, 9 p.m.

There won’t be a cover at Riverwest Public House’s New Year’s Eve celebration, which will feature DJs, dancing and a champagne toast at midnight. Once again the cooperatively owned pub will be hosting a service industry brunch starting around 3 a.m., providing the servers and bartenders who’ve been working all night a chance to celebrate, too.

Suits & Sequins: A New Year’s Celebration @ Revel Bar, 9 p.m.

DJ Cell and DJ Yogie guarantee a lively dance floor at this party, which will also feature a midnight balloon drop, party favors and chicken and waffles after 1 a.m.

All-youcan-drink wristbands will be available for $40.

D E C E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 8 | 35

::::LOCALMUSIC VINCENT PERINI

::ALBUMS

Abby Jeanne

ABBY JEANNE FLIPS THE SCRIPT on ‘MUSIC BOX DANCER’

F

::BY JOSHUA MILLER

or singer-songwriter Abby Jeanne, Music Box Music Box Dancer will be the label’s first album release. She Dancer is much more than a clever title she came intends to release her future work on the label and is working on up with for her latest album. It’s a true representa- expanding the label’s artist roster. tion of who she is.

It’s been a whirlwind past year for Jeanne. Highlights include Ever since she was a teenager, Jeanne has consid- a four-show “Fire in February” residency, a WMSE Record Store ered the Hi-Fi Café in Bay View a magical place to Day 7-inch, song placement in a Summerfest commercial (“Cosmic get lost in for hours. Jeanne made her first visit to the café as a 13-year- Beings”), a $20,000 Backline grant, and a “Cosmic Weekend” fesold and immediately was drawn to the café’s jukebox, which is packed tival that she hosted. full of records spanning many decades and musical genres. She made a “I have so much energy and emotions that are constantly running point to come back to the café whenever she could. through my mind,” Jeanne says. “Being an artist, it’s almost first Eventually owner Peter Steinhoff took notice of the café’s frequent nature to feel like a misfit in a way because I don’t have a normal visitor and offered Jeanne a job. He also started sharing some of his life; I don’t have a normal job. My job is constantly creating and favorite artists and records with her. expressing myself… I like that people are responding to the music “He would expose me to really old, underground music from the and I love connecting. But most of the time I just see myself as a ’60s, ’70s and ’80s,” says Jeanne. “All things that were new and differ- weirdo girl that’s expressing herself.” ent to me that I started really getting into. And then I got into collecting Expressing herself was much easier on Music Box Dancer than Rebel records because of it. This place culturally shaped my musical tastes.”

Love, since she had more resources. For a while, she was doing everyThe album, she says, is essentially a tribute to the “magical rock ’n’ thing solo. She had to make do with what she had, including jumping roll world that I grew up in.” between different instruments. Finding a band rectified that problem.

As she grew up, she started listening to all sorts of music, including “Once I had a solid band with me and is still with me through thick ’60s psychedelia, ska music and punk rock. It’s natural then that Music and thin, I can now direct my vision exactly how I want it,” she says. “If Box Dancer hops smoothly between genres from track to track.

I hear this crazy guitar part and sing the part, my guitar player can just “I think it just naturally flows out of me. I never sit down and say I’m do it. Whereas before, on guitar I can play and write but I’m not a guitar going to make this kind of song. It just happens,” she says. player. It’s not my expertise.”

“So, I think it’s a subconscious thing of all the music I’ve “I have so much more in my garden of instrumentalists been absorbing most of my life.” and members that can help me complete this vision that’s in Abby When she was 16, she left Milwaukee to travel the world my mind, just with more ease.”

Jeanne and pursue a life in music in nomadic fashion. For a year, The final piece of the puzzle was found with producer Turner Hall she lived in a minivan with a guitar and would perform as Daniel Holter, who runs Wauwatosa studio Wire & Vice.

Ballroom often as she could. She followed that up with a year-and-aThey first met in 2016 following her performance at Milhalf living in Europe, hopping between different trains and waukee Record’s Local Coverage. She left immediately Sat., Jan. 5, busking on the streets. that night for a month-long trip to India with her guitarist, 8 p.m.

About three years ago, she moved back to Milwauwhere she wrote “Cosmic Beings.” The song was a catalyst kee and set forth establishing herself as an artist. She for the recording of the rest of the album. recorded her debut album Rebel Love in her living room “Since ‘Cosmic Beings’ was the first song I recorded in and started performing wherever she could. As things started to re- such a great studio, hearing the first mix was an all-time high for me, just ally click, she turned her attention to her favorite café. hearing the vision come to life,” she says.

“Now that I’m a full-time artist, I figured it was time to turn this place Abby Jeanne plays an album release show Saturday, Jan. 5, at Turner into a record label,” she says of Hi-Fi Records. “Because now I’m mak- Hall Ballroom with Saebra & Carlyle at 8 p.m. For an extended Q&A ing records, and what better place to do that?” with Jeanne, visit shepherdexpress.com.

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Rolling Stones

Beggars Banquet 50th Anniversary Edition (ABKCO RECORDS) Spooky percussion and elegantly sparse piano set the pace for “Sympathy for the Devil,” which sets the stage for what is—no argument—one of The Rolling Stones’ greatest albums, Beggars Banquet. With “Sympathy,” the Stones achieved a distinctly British funkiness, but that’s not all: Beggars Banquet includes a blues morality play worth of Rev. Gary Davis (“Prodigal Son”), a ballad of dreamy resignation (“No Expectations”) and anthemic hard rock (“Street Fighting Man”). The latest edition of Beggars Banquet is elaborately packaged, reproducing both versions of the album’s cover art—the original graffiti-inspired idea as well as the plain white wrapper of its original release. The music is contained in Super Audio CD (meaning super high fidelity) and regular CD formats. Also included is a flexi disc of a 1968 conversation involving Mick Jagger in an especially witty mood.

—David Luhrssen

Xposed 4Heads featuring Star Girls “Take Off”

How appropriate is it that a synthpop band such as Milwaukee’s Xposed 4Heads should release a digital single? Leader Mark G.E. passes the vocal duties to a pair of women in cheapo space-alien gear calling themselves Star Girls.

The ladies’ semi-blasé singing about intergalactic escapism leads the way of an instrumental track sounding like Devo as produced by electro-R&B pioneers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The campy appeal of it is all the more enhanced by a music video with G.E. as slick carnival barker-cum-astronaut and green-screen shots of a rocket ship’s interior and entrance to a disco beyond the stars. It’s all pretty kitsch, with a wink to deeper social commentary. In short, it’s the fun one has come to expect from them, but how about a B-side next time?

—Jamie Lee Rake

Kenny Werner

The Space

(PIROUET) Comparisons with Keith Jarrett come easily to mind even before the album’s second track, a Keith Jarrett composition, “Encore From Tokyo. Pianist Kenny Werner has performed in many settings, backing Joe Lovano, playing in the Mel Lewis Big Band and accompanying Brazilian singer Joyce. But on The Space, Werner sits alone at the piano and meditates on the spaces between notes, the sound and the silence. The link with jazz is obvious enough but, as Jarrett showed long ago, the boundaries are porous.

—David Luhrssen

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

::::LOCALMUSIC THURSDAY, DECEMBER 27

The Back Room at Colectivo, Keith and The Pulvermacher Band 45 Story CD release w/Zach Pietrini The Bay Restaurant, Hearthfire The Cooperage, Whips w/New Age Narcissism and Devil’s Teeth The Packing House Restaurant, Tracy Hannemann Group (6:30pm) Up & Under Pub, King Solomon

Cafe Carpe (Fort Atkinson), Syd Hartha & The Monkey Minds Caroline’s Jazz Club, J. Ryan Trio Club Garibaldi, Salmonik County Clare Irish Inn & Pub, Acoustic Irish Folk w/Barry Dodd Fire On Water, Jonny T-Bird & the MPs Jazz Estate, The Nathan Kay Group Mason Street Grill, Mark Thierfelder Jazz Trio (5:30pm) Mezcalero Restaurant, Ultimate Open Jam w/host Abracadabra O’Donoghues Irish Pub (Elm Grove), The All-Star SUPERband (6pm) On the Bayou, Open Mic Comedy w/host The Original Darryl Hill Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: Amber & Adam Rounding Third Bar and Grill, World’s Funniest Free Comedy Show The Bay Restaurant, Pat McCurdy The Packing House Restaurant, Barbara Stephan & Peter Mac (6pm) Transfer Pizzeria Cafe, Martini Jazz Lounge: Cream City Quintet Up & Under Pub, A No Vacancy Comedy Open Mic

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29

Alley Cat Lounge (Five O’Clock Steakhouse), Ali & Doug Duo Ally’s Bistro (Menomonee Falls), VIVO w/Warren Wiegratz American Legion Post #399 (Okauchee), Larry Lynne Band American Legion Post #449 (Brookfield), Mid Life Crisis Angelo’s Piano Lounge, Julie’s Piano Karaoke Blu Bar & Lounge at the Pfister, The Scott Napoli Quartet w/Jamie Brewick, Mark Davis & Clay Schaub Cactus Club, MKExpanded Presents 2018 & Over w/Renz Young, Mudy, KGz, Peez, Supah Cash, Phif & James Tatum Caroline’s Jazz Club, The Paul Spencer Band w/James Sodke, Michael Ritter, Aaron Gardner & Victor Campbell Circle-A Cafe, Alive at Eight: The Bash Brothers (8pm); DJ: Fazio (10pm) Club Garibaldi, Frogleg ComedySportz Milwaukee, ComedySportz Milwaukee!

Company Brewing, The Aluar Pearls w/w/SelectorMax County Clare Irish Inn & Pub, Traditional Irish Ceilidh Session Iron Mike’s (Franklin), Open Jam Session w/Steve Nitros & Friends Jazz Estate, Steve Einerson Quartet (8pm), Late Night Session: Jesse Montijo Qtet (11:30pm) Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall, Jake’O Lakefront Brewery, Brewhaus Polka Kings (5:30pm) Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, The Delta Routine Reunion Show Mamie’s, Robert Allen Jr. Band Mason Street Grill, Phil Seed Trio (6pm) Pabst Theater, Gary Owen Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In the Northern Lights Theater: BoDeans Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: Alyssia Dominguez and Jeremy Zima (9pm), In the Fire Pit: Final Say (9pm) Route 20 Outhouse (Sturtevant), Weird Science (ages 18+, 9pm) Saloon on Calhoun with Bacon, Sam Llanas Shank Hall, Pat McCurdy Sloppy Joe’s (Hubertus), Matt MF Tyner & Leroy Deuster Duo The Astor Cafe & Pub, The Chris Hanson Band w/Robin Pluer (6:30pm)

American Legion Post #449 (Brookfield), Our House Big Head Brewing Company, Jonny T-Bird Brewtown Eatery, One Lane Bridge Cactus Club, So Greedy Ugly Sweater Holiday Party w/Dope Folk DJs Cafe Carpe (Fort Atkinson), The New Pioneers Caroline’s Jazz Club, The Paul Spencer Band w/James Sodke, Cody Longreen, Michael Ritter, Dave “Smitty” Smith & Victor Campbell Circle-A Cafe, Alive at Eight: Vanity Plate w/Bbys (8pm); DJ: Theresa Who (10pm) Club Garibaldi, TRT and Friends Pre-New Year’s Eve Bash ComedySportz Milwaukee, ComedySportz Milwaukee!

Company Brewing, CWB “Gold Experience” Preview w/Mas Soul Five O’Clock Steakhouse, Ben Stueve Duo Harry’s on Brady, 5 Card Studs Hilton Milwaukee City Center, Vocals & Keys Irie Palace, Anthony Cruz & The Conscious Rockers w/Maalik F, Drose and Miya, & DJ Fyre Jazz Estate, Latin Night with Cache (8pm), Late Night Session: A.R.D. (Arpin – Richards – Dietz) (11:30pm) Kick Switch Bar And Grill (Okauchee), Joey Halbur Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall, 5 O’Clock Charlie w/Magnetic Minds & Behind the Weekend Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, (Not So) Acoustic Blu w/Dumpster Doves & Mile 79 Mason Street Grill, Jonathan Wade Trio (6pm) Matty’s Bar & Grille (New Berlin), Winter Music: Clove McAuliffe’s Pub (Racine), Sunshine Menace w/A Letter To Jacob & Inbound Mezcalero Restaurant, Larry Lynne Band Motor Bar & Restaurant, Bulleit Bourbon Presents BBQ & Blues: Robert Allen Jr. Band (5pm) Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: Matt & Karla as Subtle Undertones (9pm), In the Fire Pit: Andrew Gelles (9pm) Rave / Eagles Club, Playboi Carti (all-ages, 8pm) Rugans (Burlington), Joe Kadlec Shank Hall, The Lovelies w/The Quilz The Packing House Restaurant, Lloyd Stephens Quartet (6:30pm) Up & Under Pub, Authentic Pines Westallion Brewing Company, Derek Byrne & Paddygrass

Dugout 54, Dugout 54 Sunday Open Jam Pabst Theater, The Gufs – “THIRTY”w/Brian Vander Ark Rounding Third Bar and Grill, The Dangerously Strong Comedy Open Mic Sunset Grill Pewaukee, Full Band Open Jam (5pm)

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31

Alley Cat Lounge (Five O’Clock Steakhouse), New Year’s Eve Celebration Bacchus Restaurant, 5 Card Studs Cactus Club, Brew City Bombshells present “All That Glitters” Gold NYE Party w/DJ Claire Dactyl Cafe Carpe (Fort Atkinson), The Chris Hanson Band w/Robin Pluer Circle-A Cafe, Alive at Eight: Aluminum Knot Eye w/Last Sons Of Krypton (8pm); All-Star DJs (11pm-’til?)

Clifford’s Supper Club, New Year’s Eve Rock-N-Roll Dance Party w/Jimmy “Big Bopper” Prince, The DO WA WA Band & Chuck Travis Sr. Club Garibaldi, Radio Radio NYEVE Club Timbuktu, The Majestics Company Brewing, New YAMS Eve 2019 w/DJ Bizzon County Clare Irish Inn & Pub, Ian Gould (6pm & 10pm) Cue Club of Wisconsin (Waukesha), The Sensations Elks Lodge #46, Robert Allen Jr. Band High Dive, Selector Max w/Asher Gray and Juiceboxxx Jazz Estate, De la Buena Sextet Jewels Caribbean Restaurant, New Year’s Eve w/Kojo & DJ Natasha Jewels Kim’s Lakeside (Pewaukee), One Shot Wally LuLu Cafe, New Year’s Eve w/Lauryl Sulfate and Her Ladies of Leisure & Faux Fiction Mamie’s, Marvelous Mack Mason Street Grill, Joel Burt Duo (5:30pm) Mezcalero Restaurant, New Year’s Eve w/Suave Milwaukee Athletic Club, Brew Year’s Eve Miramar Theatre, NYE w/Dead Man’s Carnival & Prof. Pinkerton & The Magnificents North Shore American Legion Post #331 (Shorewood), The John Schneider Orchestra w/MRS. FUN & Claire Morkin Pabst Theater, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades w/Chicken Wire Empire, Sarah Vos of Dead Horses & Adam Greuel of HHG Paulie’s Pub and Eatery, Open Jam: Christopher John & Friends w/featured band

Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: Marcell & Christopher’s Project (8pm), In the Fire Pit: The First Wave and VJ/DJ Brian S. Redd (8pm) Rave / Eagles Club, Dada Life @ Stellar Spark New Year’s Eve (all-ages, 8pm) Red Rock Saloon, Red Rock’n NYE 2019 w/Brandon Henson Route 20 Outhouse (Sturtevant), New Years Disco Party w/The Boogie Men (ages 18+, 9pm) Shank Hall, Metal Chick’s Rockin’ New Years Eve w/Killmister (Motorhead tribute) and Aces High (Iron Maiden tribute) The Cheel (Thiensville), The Stephen Hull Experience The Packing House Restaurant, New Year’s R&B Eve: Joe Jordan & The Soul Trio The Suburban Bourbon (Muskego), Larry Lynne Revue Three Lions Pub, NYE Dance Party w/Mixtape Up & Under Pub, Honey on the Biscuit Wisconsin Center, Radiance NYE (ages 18+, 6pm)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 1

Kim’s Lakeside (Pewaukee), Robert Allen Jr. & Friends Mason Street Grill, Jamie Breiwick Group (5:30pm) McAuliffe’s Pub (Racine), The Parkside Reunion Big Band Miramar Theatre, Tuesday Open Mic w/host Sandy Weisto (sign-up 7:30pm, all-ages) Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: Al White (4pm) Riverwest Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts, Jazz Jam Session Transfer Pizzeria Cafe, Transfer House Band w/Dennis Fermenich

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2

Caroline’s Jazz Club, Jimi Schutte American Blues Hudson Business Lounge and Cafe, Jazz at Noon: Don Linke and Friends Iron Mike’s (Franklin), B Lee Nelson Acoustic Jam Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall, Polka Open Jam Linneman’s Riverwest Inn, Acoustic Open Stage w/feature Anja Elise (sign-up 8:30pm, start 9pm) Mason Street Grill, Jamie Breiwick Group (5:30pm) Paulie’s Field Trip, Wednesday Night Afterparty w/Dave Wacker & guests Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, In Bar 360: Al White Sunset Grill Pewaukee, Robert Allen Jr. & Friends Tally’s Tap & Eatery (Waukesha), Tomm Lehnigk The Cheel (Thiensville), Acoustic Blu Duo (6:30pm)

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::ONTHECOUCH

Something bugging you? Find out what the Shrink thinks

What About Those New Year’s Resolutions?

Dear Shrink,

Can we talk about New Year’s resolutions?

I’ve made the same vow to eat healthier and exercise more regularly for the past six years.

I’m still the same weight, and I’m getting less fit by the day! I don’t want to torture myself with self-loathing as I fail, one more time, to make my grand plans stick. How can I motivate myself to succeed?

The Shrink Replies,

The idea of making so-called “New Year’s resolutions” originated with the ancient Babylonians. Each spring at planting time, they believed if they renewed their devotion to the gods, they would be blessed with an abundant harvest in the coming year. Other cultures and religions—and regular people like you and me—have perpetuated the custom ever since.

There must be something to it; this 4,000-yearold ritual has certainly stood the test of time.

For some reason, at the end of one year and beginning of the next, most of us do a mental inventory assessing how things went for us in the past year and goals we hope to pursue in the year ahead. Resolving to consciously move in a more positive direction is the first step. Maintaining that forward movement is not so easy.

Generally speaking, people are motivated to do well when they get a pat on the back rather than harsh criticism. Your first resolution could be to ditch the self-loathing. Your own experience has shown that no good result can come from that approach. How about taking the pressure off this time around by making some totally different resolutions? Sometimes, people achieve greater success in life by taking the focus off of the goal you think you want to achieve and choosing other, less emotionally fraught, plans for overall well-being. For example, why not try these on for size?

Go Old School in the New Year.

Read an actual book—the kind printed on paper, not illuminated on a screen. Give yourself extra bonus points if you procure that book from either your neighborhood library (free!) or a local bookseller (this might cost you more than Amazon, but it will help to keep nice people in business). And, while you’re in the bookstore, check out the card section. Buy a few cards—the kind you write in, put a stamp on and send off to someone in the mail. We all still get mail, but most often, it’s generic stuff that goes right into the trash. When’s the last time you got a handwritten envelope in that stack of mail? Do you remember how you felt when you saw it? Don’t let either of these oldschool gems—written words on a page—go the way of the dinosaurs.

Get Outside of the Box. Life can get pretty boring and mundane if you let it. Our daily path typically takes us on the same route: wake up, go to work, come home, eat, do household chores, sleep, repeat. We break it up occasionally with a date with friends or a yoga class, but even so, our patterns are generally set. Humans like predictability, but too much of the same leads to boredom. Promise to do one thing a day/ week/month that’s not something you’d normally do. You’ll have to consciously come up with these alternate ways of doing things, because we’re creatures of habit and function on autopilot much of the time. Get your daily news fix differently. Steer clear of the clickbait and do a deeper dive into a story, see what the other side of the political spectrum has to say, or try a news source from outside the U.S. Take public transportation to work instead of driving—you’ll have to get out the door earlier, but you’ll start the day with a different vibe. Next dinner out, try a restaurant in a completely different neighborhood than your usual orbit or an ethnic cuisine you’ve never sampled. Shake it up a bit.

Don’t Forget to Say Thanks.

Some type of daily effort to count your blessings and pass kindness on to others is critically important these days. We’re living through a time of turbulence and division.

Feelings of hopelessness and defeat have, sadly, become common for many of us. A steady diet of anger and frustration is not the best nourishment for us humans. There are many antidotes to negativity, but a gratitude practice is a good place to start. If this isn’t already part of your self-care plan, you’ll have to train yourself. As a prompt, subscribe to a daily e-mail that focuses on the bigger picture, the greater good. I like gratefulness.org.

The ritual of a year-end inventory is a good one to preserve. Even a fleeting thought of “out with the old, in with the new” may yield a shift for you. While most things in life worth achieving require some extra effort, all change starts with thought and intention. Intending to do better sets the stage for being better, and sometimes that’s all the re-boot you need. And making some changes around the margins in life can have a ripple effect into the core of what we really wish to be doing differently. Here’s to a fresh start for all of us.

On the Couch is written by a licensed mental health professional. Her advice is not meant to be a substitute for mental healt care.

Send your questions to onthecouch@shepex. com.

Comment at shepherdexpress.com. n SHEPHERD EXPRESS

TOUGH GUYS

THEME CROSSWORD

By James Barrick

PSYCHO SUDOKU! “Greater-Than Sudoku”

For this “Greater-Than Sudoku,” I’m not givin’ you ANY numbers to start off with!!

Adjoining squares in the grid’s 3x3 boxes have a greater-than sign (>) telling you which of the two numbers in those squares is larger. Fill in every square with a number from 1-9 using the greater-than signs as a guide. When you’re done, as with a normal Sudoku, every row, column, and 3x3 box will contain the numbers 1-9 exactly one time. (Solving hint: try to look for the 1’s and 9’s in each box first, then move on to the 2’s and 8’s, and so on). psychosudoku@gmail.com

© 2018 United Feature Syndicate, Dist. by Andrews McMeel Syndication

ACROSS 1. Vacation venue 5. The Pentateuch 10. Fundamental 15. Knocks dead 19. Inter — 20. Gathering place in Athens 21. Equally 22. Birthright seller 23. Circulate 24. Passover meal 25. Ship’s crane 26. Stark 27. Start of a quip by Jack Handey: 7 wds.

31. Is indebted 32. Cookie brand 33. Most of zeta and theta 34. Set of four 37. Lover of Helen 39. Economized 44. Panoply 45. Played for stakes 46. Slippers 47. Comedian — Philips 48. Heavy hammer 49. Wrinkled 50. Like a superhero 51. — ounce 52. A letter 53. Sign in a market 54. Termagant 55. Ridge 56. Put in writing: 2 wds.

58. Step 59. Greek philosopher 60. Part 2 of quip: 5 wds.

64. Stone fruits 66. Sakes —!

67. Bishop’s staff 70. American Beauties 71. Avalanche 72. Salesman’s talk

74. Compass pt.

75. Nosebag filler 76. Libertines 77. Effort 78. — de foie gras 79. Another pt.

80. World wonders count 81. Fetch 82. Mentioned 83. Short on dough 85. Coasters and jumpers 86. Sunny 87. Kind of chest 88. — Ponce de Leon 89. Covered 90. End of the quip: 6 wds.

98. Leslie Caron role 99. Country estate 100. Wearies 101. — Khayyam 103. Desktop picture 104. Lawn tool 105. Star sign 106. Hawaiian goose 107. Chanted 108. Like dishwater 109. A little off 110. Pitfall DOWN 1. — -a-pie 2. Russian range: Var. 3. Spray 4. Arcadian 5. Gave an assignment to 6. Arches 7. Carew and Steiger 8. Bailiwick 9. Held on to 10. Scouts’ honors 11. Beleaguered mission 12. Hindu deity: Var. 13. Related 14. Learned

15. PC peripheral 16. Eskers 17. Suspicious 18. Melissa — Anderson 28. Out of town 29. Rainbow: Prefix 30. Cornelia — Skinner 34. Domesticates 35. Efface 36. Monopoly’s undoing 37. Gasp 38. ISU’s home 39. Unrivaled 40. Yarn ball 41. Go on foot 42. Act like a ham 43. Senior member 45. Brobdingnagian 46. Ave — 49. Sinclair or Jerry Lee 50. Pursuit 51. Trials 53. Airborne specks 54. Madden or Martin 55. Wine-cask deposit 57. Hornswoggles 58. Pallets 59. Monstrous ones 61. Spilled the beans 62. Foreign

63. Ganache 64. Worthless matter 65. Dinner item 68. “— the Dragon” 69. Tall and slender 71. Except 72. Aforementioned 73. Fasteners 76. Scolds 77. Kind of medical care 78. Region in Italy 80. Tiff 81. A little sick 82. Chew the fat 84. Canopy 85. Like a soft drink 86. Elegant 88. Minty drink 89. Chick’s cry 90. Isinglass 91. Dramatic conflict in literature 92. Beach resort 93. Seaweed 94. Beginner 95. Performing group 96. Part of AMA: Abbr.

97. “Peter Pan” nurse 98. Enlistees 102. Sales —

M B L L A T C H E T R B N E C R V S E

E Z Z L E M E E O A Z A G R I E L J L J A M B O O M O E X P U C K A C D O R M A L I N T A B B Y A W O O X Q U E N T I A

N T E V E E F R E E V O S E V R E L I R S A S H L L L L Y

12/20 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 32 letters left over. They spell out the alternative theme of the puzzle.

Multiculturalism Solution: 32 Letters

© 2018 Australian Word Games Dist. by Creators Syndicate Inc.

E X P R E S S W A Y

Solution to last week’s puzzle

Adopted African Angles Art Asian Assimilation Colonial Conflict Ethnic European Greek

Integrate Jutes Learning Lebanese Mixed Mosaic Music Philosophy Pluralism Race Refugee

Salad bowl Saxons Security Shared Sports Thai Trust Unique Values

SHEPHERD EXPRESS

12/20 Solution: Are you feeling lucky?

D E C E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 8 | 39

Solution: Immigrants bring delicious cuisines

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

Date: 12/27/18

::NEWS OF THE WEIRD ::BY THE EDITORS OF ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

Roadkill Roasting on an Open Fire im Alexander, 41, and Betina Bradshaw, 54, of Torquay, England, planned quite the holiday feast for family and friends. On the menu: deer, pheasant, rabbits, badgers... all roadkill.

Alexander, a trained butcher, has collected nearly 50 animal corpses throughout 2018. “I know people will think it’s unusual, but really it just makes sense,” Alexander told Metro News. Bradshaw says her family refers to him as a serial killer, but he has gradually won her over to the idea of eating roadkill.

“The first few times he brought a deer home, he told me it was for the dog. Obviously, you turn your nose up a bit at the start, but now it doesn’t bother me at all,” she said. Alexander said his odd culinary habits have drawn the attention of police, but “once they realize I’m doing nothing wrong, they are fine, and one even helped me lift an animal into the van,” he said.

The Domino Effect H.W. Taylor III, 51, of Chatfield, Texas, was charged Dec. 12 with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after a parking dispute escalated outside a Domino’s pizza shop in Jerrell. Determined to park his tractor-trailer in a restricted area, reported the Austin American-Statesman, Taylor removed a chain blocking the area and parked his truck there, even as store employees told him not to. Williamson County sheriff’s deputies were called after Taylor pointed a gun at the chest of one the employees and then shot a nine 9mm round into the ground nearby, causing a small piece of the bullet to strike the employee in the ear. Having lost his appetite for pizza, Taylor returned to his truck and drove away, but officers soon caught up to him in another county.

The Domino’s worker had a small cut to his ear and is expected to survive.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): A typical fluffy white cumulus cloud weighs 216,000 pounds. A dark cumulonimbus storm cloud is 106 million pounds, almost 490 times heavier. Why? Because it’s filled with far more water than the white cloud. So which is better, the fluffy cumulus or the stormy cumulonimbus? Neither, of course. We might sometimes prefer the former over the latter because it doesn’t darken the sky as much or cause the inconvenience of rain. But the truth is, the cumulonimbus is a blessing; a substantial source of moisture; a gift to growing things. I mention this because I suspect that for you, 2019 will have more metaphorical resemblances to the cumulonimbus than the cumulus.

Not Music to His Ears

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A hundred years ago, most astronomers thought there was just one galaxy in the universe: our Milky Way. Other models for the structure of the universe were virtually heretical. But in the 1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble produced research that proved the existence of many more galaxies. Today the estimate is that there are at least 400 billion. I wonder what currently unimaginable possibilities will be obvious to our ancestors a hundred years from now. Likewise, I wonder what currently unforeseen truths will be fully available to you by the end of 2019. My guess: more than in any other previous year of your life.

In Mesa, Ariz., diverging tastes in music led to a fatality on Dec. 14, reported the Arizona Republic. Officers responded to a call of shots fired at an apartment complex, where Sheldon Sturgill, 41, told them he shot his roommate after an argument and fistfight over the type of music they were listening to. Sturgill and his roommate had been drinking shots and beer before the altercation. He was held on suspicion of seconddegree murder. It is unclear what the offensive music choice was.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Author Elizabeth Gilbert offers advice for those who long for a closer relationship with the Supreme Being: “Look for God like a man with his head on fire looks for water.” I’ll expand that approach so it applies to you when you’re in quest of any crucial lifeenhancing experience. If you genuinely believe that a particular adventure or relationship or transformation is key to your central purpose, it’s not enough to be mildly enthusiastic about it. You really do need to seek your heart’s desire in the way people with their heads on fire look for water. 2019 will be prime time for you to embody this understanding.

Coming to a Pharmacy Near You? Havana, Cuba, resident Pepe Casanas, 78, has discovered a tried-and-true way to treat his rheumatism pain: Once a month for the last 10 years, Casanas seeks out a blue scorpion, which is endemic to Cuba, and lets it sting him. “I put the scorpion where I feel pain,” Casanas told Reuters. After the sting, “it hurts for a while, but then it calms and goes, and I don’t have any more pain.” In fact, researchers have confirmed that the scorpion’s venom has anti-inflammatory and pain relief effects. It may even delay cancer growth in some patients. A Cuban pharmaceutical company has been selling a homeopathic pain remedy called Vidatox, made from the scorpion’s venom, but Casanas, a former tobacco farmer, takes the simpler route. He sometimes keeps a scorpion under his straw hat for luck, where he says it likes the shade and humidity.

High on Mickey-D’s Maybe it was the Triple Breakfast Stacks McGriddles that lured Anthony Andrew Gallagher, 23, to the drive-thru lane at a Port St. Lucie, Fla., McDonald’s to satisfy his hungries on the morning of Dec. 16. But, when it came time to pay, the Associated Press reported, Gallagher offered the dude in the window a bag of weed instead of money. The worker declined the payment, and Gallagher drove away, returning a while later.

McDonald’s staff called police after the first attempt, and Gallagher was apprehended for marijuana possession and driving under the influence. © 2018 ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION 40 | D E C E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 8

::FREEWILLASTROLOGY ::BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19): I suspect that in 2019 you’ll be able to blend a knack for creating more stability with an urge to explore and seek greater freedom. How might this unusual confluence be expressed in practical ways? Maybe you’ll travel to reconnect with your ancestral roots. Or perhaps a faraway ally or influence will help you feel more at home in the world. It’s possible you’ll establish a stronger foundation, which will in turn bolster your courage and inspire you to break free of a limitation. What do you think?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): On the average, a total eclipse of the sun happens every 18 months. And how often is a total solar eclipse visible from a specific location on the planet? Typically, once every 375 years. In 2019, the magic moment will occur on July 2 for people living in Chile and Argentina. But I believe that throughout the coming year, Tauruses all over the world will experience other kinds of rare and wonderful events at a higher rate than usual. Not eclipses, but rather divine interventions, mysterious miracles, catalytic epiphanies, unexpected breakthroughs, and amazing graces. Expect more of the marvelous than you’re accustomed to.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “The world’s full of people who have stopped listening to themselves,” wrote mythologist Joseph Campbell.

It’s imperative that you NOT be one of those folks.

2019 should be the Year of Listening Deeply to Yourself. That means being on high alert for your inner inklings, your unconscious longings, and the still, small voice at the heart of your destiny. If you do that, you’ll discover I’m right when I say that you’re smarter than you realize.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Jackson Pollock is regarded as a pioneer in the technique of drip painting, which involves drizzling and splashing paint on canvases that lie on the floor.

It made him famous. But the truth is, Pollock got inspired to pursue what became known as his signature style only after he saw an exhibit by the artist Janet Sobel, who was the real pioneer. I bring this to your attention, because I see 2019 as a year when the Janet Sobel-like aspects of your life will get their due. Overdue appreciation will arrive. Credit you have deserved

but haven’t fully garnered will finally come your way.

You’ll be acknowledged and recognized in surprising ways.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): As the crow flies, Wyoming is almost a thousand miles from the Pacific Ocean and more than a thousand miles from the Gulf of Mexico, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. Now here’s a surprise: in the northwest corner of Wyoming, the North Two Ocean Creek divides into two tributaries, one of which ultimately flows to the Pacific and one that reaches the Gulf. So an enterprising fish could conceivably swim from one ocean to the other via this waterway. I propose that we make North Two Ocean Creek your official metaphor for 2019. It will symbolize the turning point you’ll be at in your life; it will remind you that you’ll have the power to launch an epic journey in one of two directions.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I have come to the conclusion that softening your relationship with perfectionism will be a key assignment in 2019. With this in mind, I offer you observations from wise people who have studied the subject.

1: “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”—Voltaire.

2: “Perfection is a stick with which to beat the possible.”—Rebecca Solnit. 3: Perfectionism is “the highend version of fear.”—Elizabeth Gilbert. 4: “Nothing is less efficient than perfectionism.”—Elizabeth Gilbert.

4: “It’s better to live your own life imperfectly than to imitate someone else’s perfectly.”—Elizabeth Gilbert.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In 1682, Peter Alexeyevich became co-Tsar of Russia. He was 10 years old. His 24-year-old half-sister Sophia had a hole cut in the back of his side of the dual throne. That way she could sit behind him, out of sight, and whisper guidance as he discussed political matters with allies. I’d love it if you could wangle a comparable arrangement for yourself in 2019. Are there wise confidants or mentors or helpers from whom you could draw continuous counsel? Seek them out.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The body of the violin has two f-shaped holes on either side of the strings. They enable the sound that resonates inside the instrument to be projected outwardly. A thousand years ago, the earliest ancestor of the modern violin had round holes. Later they became half-moons, then c-shaped, and finally evolved into the f-shape. Why the change? Scientific analysis reveals that the modern form allows more air to be pushed out from inside the instrument, thereby producing a more powerful sound. My analysis of your life in 2019 suggests it will be a time to make an upgrade from your metaphorical equivalent of the c-shaped holes to the f-shaped holes. A small shift like that will enable you to generate more power and resonance.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian singer-songwriter Sia has achieved great success, garnering nine Grammy nominations and amassing a $20 million fortune. Among the superstars for whom she has composed hit tunes are Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Flo Rida. But she has also had failures. Top recording artists like Adele and Shakira have commissioned her to write songs for them only to subsequently turn down what she created. In 2016, Sia got sweet revenge. She released an album in which she herself sang many of those rejected songs.

It has sold more than 2 million copies. Do you, too, know what it’s like to have your gifts and skills ignored or unused or rebuffed, Sagittarius? If so, the coming months will be an excellent time to express them for your own benefit, as Sia did.

Homework: Forget what Time magazine thinks. Who is your “Person of the Year”? Tell me at freewillastrology.com; click on “Email Rob.” Go to realastrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s Expanded Weekly Audio Horoscopes and Daily Text Message Horoscopes. The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 877873-4888 or 900-950-7700.

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::ARTFORART’SSAKE

Should Be Forgot, Again

I

::BY ART KUMBALEK

’m Art Kumbalek and man oh manischewitz what a world, ain’a? So listen, I know the hub-and-bub of the holiday season is always a big deal this time of year for the people. But for a guy like me, hey, every day is just another focking holiday, each and every day of the year. Oh yeah, nothing but seashells, balloons, topped with a generous dollop of you got to be jerking my beefaroni. I kid you not.

And this old year, this time 2018, is practically expired and again I’m thinking the less said about it the better.

But I will tell you’s I recall that at the beginning of this dying year I looked back at 2017 and said it had sucked, and my crystal ball told me to say that the future-2018 would also suck, but even more. Cripes, I should’ve put my money where my mouth was ’cause if I had, I’d be living the luxury life on Easy Street and lighting my Pall Malls with $20-dollar bills, what the fock.

So yeah, the less said about 2018 the better and I’m sticking to it, this week anyways. But before I go, I got to say once again that if you’re out and about New Year’s Eve so’s to kick 2018 out the door, maybe I’ll see you over by the North Shore American Legion Post #331 up there in Shorewood on Wilson Drive just north of Capitol, 9 p.m. to midnight with the John Schneider Orchestra, Claire Morkin and MRS. FUN, ring-a-ding-ding. It’s a suggested donation of $15, but as always, if you’d rather drop a couple, three grand at the door, there’d be no complaints.

So to the limit of my optimism, it bears repeating that I wish you all a happy focking New Year, and good luck with that, what the fock, ’cause I’m Art Kumbalek and I told you so.

Grab a solo cup and let’s rage!

Beer. Punch. Games. Music by DJ Shawna.

Friday, February 8 • 5:30pm to 9pm Tavern at Turner Hall

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