Vol VII • Issue 5 • June 2008
2 | Vital Source
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inside Vital
June 2008 | vol. 7 issue 5 | vitalsourcemag.com
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featured
VITAL CULTURE
10 2008 Fiction Contest winners Chickens by Craig Reinbold The Phreaks by Ken Brosky
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18 reel milwaukee Overview of the Underground >> howie goldklang
2008 farmers market Guide The big-city summer grind can be tough. For respite, consider the idyll of a sojourn to your local farmers market. You won’t regret it.
16 stages Road Trip 27 music reviews Abigal Washburn, Skybombers, The Long Blondes, Monotonix, My Morning Jacket 29 record releases Ashanti, Aimee Mann, the Charlatans, Lil Wayne and many more
cover artist Brandon Minga, born and raised in Kenosha, moved to Milwaukee for his BFA in Illustration from MIAD and never left. A proud parent, fiancée, and all-around family guy, he designs apparel for StraightUp, Inc., 1190 and Kindred Clothiers, and freelances for print and the web. See more of his work at brandonminga.com.
ONLINE @ VITALSOURCEMAG.Com
30 Subversions Green Bay godfathers and hockey-playing chimps >> mat t wild
NEWS+VIEWS 4 The Editor’s Desk Faster than the speed of time >> jon anne willow 22 The Funny Page
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Please Send Help >> Matt Wild’s nightlife/ publicity stunt/weekend music reports
Gray Matter and The Free Speech Zone >> Politics as unusual with Ted Bobrow and Michelle Tucker
Love Letters >>Wanderings and wonderings from Amy Elliott
Between Stages >> Russ Bickerstaff between scenes in the performing arts Dem Bones >> All things art from Stella Cretek
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20 eat this Gone Fishing >> C atherine M c G arry M iller 24 Vital’s Picks Where VITAL will be in June >> erin lee petersen and lindsey huster
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Vital Source | 3
Vital source The editor’s desk
>> by jon anne willow
Faster than the speed of time I don’t know anyone who doesn’t waste at least a little thinking space over how much time speeds up as we age. The phenomenon has spawned numerous mathematical theories and countless arguments about physiology and environment that keep mathematicians and social scientists eternally butting heads in the halls of academia. In real life, the passage of time manifests itself as an increasingly kaleidoscopic sense of memory and the feeling that summer gets shorter every year. After all, when you’re six and you only have linear memories from maybe the last three years, an 11-week summer vacation is effectively 7% of your whole life. At 40, 7% is 145 weeks, or almost three years. That’s quite a difference. For ongoing, in-depth exploration of time acceleration theory, I suggest having a bunch of kids and spreading their ages out over as many years as you can. My sample is rather small for this model: I have five kids aged 10 to 18, with nieces and nephews expanding the data set to the ages of 5 to 21. My research has nothing to do with the kids’ perception of time, but with my own. I can’t keep up with how often these kids are metamorphosing, while my own growth has slowed to a barely evolutionary crawl. Two years ago my oldest daughter Alex was a high school junior looking forward to her 16th birthday, feeling like she had the world by the ass. This morning she probably got up early in the south side apartment she shares with her boyfriend, let the dog out and took the bus to her cashier job. She’s figuring herself out, and for now she just wants to work and live on her own. At this time in 2006, my son Harrison was having a hell of a time understanding that he wasn’t the center of the universe (partly my fault, for sure). Since then, he’s been through a slew of changes that could erode the emotional security of any man, but he seems more grounded than a lot of people I know, kid or adult.
When I met Cass she was freshly 14, and the family member everyone was afraid of provoking. Known for her dark bursts of temper, she kept to herself a lot, painting her nails black and staring moodily into space for hours on end. As I was getting to know her siblings, I found some way to bond with each of them, but Cassidy was a pissed-off Cheshire Cat to me. I even lowered myself to her engagement style once or twice, to my great personal mortification. But in the thick of what I think back on as “the dark times,” Cass started sitting in the kitchen while I cooked, slicing vegetables for sauce and helping out with little comment. At some point she took an interest in learning how to cook and so we found our common ground. She’s always volunteered to grocery-shop with me, I’m sure at least partly to get out of her dad’s “boring” house, and it’s been my good fortune that she’s a natural bargain hunter with a great head for kitchen math and recipe substitutions. Even in the most stressful step-parenting times we were mellow together at the store, and it gave our relationship a place to take root. Eventually our chat progressed from price comparisons to fashion, and from there to boys and friends and peer pressure and school and everything that makes up the life of a teenage girl. We made a pact: what’s shared at the store stays at the store. Now she talks my head off from the minute we shut the car doors, and she’s told me some amazing stuff – nothing dangerous, or I’d have to share with Dad (that’s also clearly stated in our pact). I have earned her trust, and the amazing friendship of a girl who, at 16, is quickly blossoming into an incredible young woman. Physically, emotionally and socially, she is transformed – and all in the same two years where my biggest personal changes have been going up a dress size and discovering comfortable shoes.
Savannah just reached the delightful age of 14, complete with all the ageappropriate trappings, and Jesse is starting to smell like puberty is not far off. But right now it’s Cassidy who amazes me the most.
In two years I will look basically the same. I will still get up early in the morning and make coffee. I will plant flowers in the spring and cover my roses in the fall. But Cassidy will be a brand new grownup, with her book unwritten and her life stretching out before her. Just like Alex is now. Just like Sav and Jesse and Harry will be in a few years. And I will have gotten to witness it all, flashing by in less than a blink, a Petri dish-perfect demonstration of how time flies. VS
Hills Like White Elephants Mehrdad J. Dalamie mjdalamie@vitalsourcemag.com
The Exit Door Leads In Russ Bickerstaff rbickerstaff@vitalsourcemag.com
The Killers Zach Bartel, Erin Petersen, Andy Zupke
consent of the publisher. Reprint and copyright inquiries must be made in writing.
Invisible Cities Jon Anne Willow jwillow@vitalsourcemag.com
A Good Man is Hard to Find Lucky Tomaszek ltomaszek@vitalsourcemag.com
Wakefield Amy C. Elliott aelliott@vitalsourcemag.com
The Swimmer Matt Wild subversions@vitalsourcemag.com
Cliffs Notes Troy Butero, Howie Goldklang, Jason Groschopf, A.L. Herzog, Charlie Hosale, DJ Hostettler, Erin Landry, Brandon Minga, David Rees, David Schrubbe, Erin Wolf
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The Seagull Tony Bobrov tbobrov@vitalsourcemag.com
The Ransom of Red Chief Catherine McGarry Miller chowbaby@vitalsourcemag.com
Ender’s Game Ryan Findley rfindley@vitalsourcemag.com
The Girl in the Flammable Skirt Dwellephant
The Green Door Bridget Brave bbrave@vitalsourcemag.com Are You Listening? Pete Hamill music@vitalsourcemag.com
4 | editor’s Desk | Vital Source
A Rose for Emily Lindsey Huster The Tell-tale Heart J. Swan
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Vital Source | 5
Vital's
2008 farmers market guide By Amy Elliott and Lindsey Huster
T
he big city grind is tough in the summer. It’s hot, smoggy and crowded. Whole city blocks are periodically shut down for sticky parties and loud, smelly rock shows. Most of us keep our day jobs for the season and then act like we don’t have anywhere to be in the morning. It wears a person out. For a break – an idyll in the heart of the city, or a day-trip to sleepier regions – consider a trip to your friendly neighborhood farmer’s market (or some other neighborhood’s friendly farmer’s market). Replenish yourself with a stroll through the flowers, fresh herbs and handcrafts; some markets even feature cooking demonstrations, live music and – thank God – coffee. Not only will you and yours be healthy, well-nourished and ready to take on the summer – you’ll enjoy connecting to your community, relaxing in the sun and refreshing your soul.
Brown Deer Farmers Market 43rd St. and Bradley Road 9 am – 6 pm, Wednesdays through October. Annuals and perennials, produce and herbs. 414-354-6923 Brookfield Farmers Market City Hall, 2000 N Calhoun Rd 7:30 a.m. – noon, Saturdays through October. Annuals, perennials, fruits and vegetables, Piedmontese beef, cut flowers, maple syrup, chickens, eggs, bison meat, baked goods, dried floral, garden art and much more. Weekly entertainment and demonstrations. Monthly Market and More event featuring handcrafted items. 262-784-7804 or brookfieldfarmersmarket.com Burlington Farmers Market Wehmoff Square, Burlington 3 pm – 7 pm, Thursdays, June 5 – Nov. 20. 262-210-6360
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Cudahy Farmers Market 4723 S. Packard Ave., Cudahy 10 am – 4 pm, Fridays through Oct. 31. Locally produced baked goods, fresh produce, honey, flowers, plants, crafts and more. 414-769-7799
East Town Farmers Market Cathedral Square Park, 520 E. Wells St. 7:30 am – 12:30 pm, Saturdays through October. Fresh produce, jellies, jams, cheeses, specialty foods, arts and crafts. 414-271-1416 or easttown.com
Delafield Farmers Market Fish Hatchery parking lot, 514 W. Main St. 7 am – 1 pm, Saturdays through October. Producer-only market featuring locally-grown vegetables, fruits, herbs, honey, cider, fresh and dried flowers, annual bedding and perennial plants, ironworks, homespun woolen yarns and handcrafted items by local artisans. 262-968-4471
Fondy Farmers Market 2200 W. Fond du Lac Ave. 7 am – 3 pm Saturdays; 8 am - 2 pm Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays; 12 pm - 6 pm Wednesdays. June 14- Nov. 22. Regular cooking demos, prepared food, and fresh locally grown produce. 414-933-8121 or fondymarket.org
East Side Open Market Beans and Barley Parking lot, 1901 E. North Ave. Thursdays 3 pm – 7 pm, June 12 – Oct. 9. Produce, agricultural products, flowers, herbs, farmers, amazing artists and weekly live entertainment. 414-226-2113 or theeastside.org
Fox Point Farmers Market Stormonth School, 7300 N. Lombardy Rd. 8 am – noon, Saturdays, June 21-Oct. 18. Wisconsin-grown fruits and vegetables, mushrooms, native plants, flowers, honey, bakery, cage-free eggs, pastured beef, cheese, and herbal soap. 414-352-0555
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Germantown Farmers Market Village Hall, N112 W1700 Mequon Rd. 8 am – 1 pm, Saturdays through Oct. 25. Fresh produce and plants. 262-250-4750 Grafton Farmers Market Twin City Plaza, 1720 Wisconsin Ave. 9 am – 5 pm Thursdays, July through October. Produce, flowers, elk meat, poultry. 262-377-1650 Greendale Open Market Municipal parking lot, Parking St. 8 am – noon Saturdays: June 28, July 12, 26, Aug. 2, 16, 23, September 6, 20, Oct. 4, 18. Farmers’ produce, apples, jams, syrups and flowers, honey, vegetables, soup, bakery items, variety of crafts. 414-423-2790 or gpr.greendale.k12.wi.us Hales Corners Harvest on the Homestead Stahl-Conrad Homestead, 9724 W. Forest Home Ave. 8 am – noon. July 5, July 19, Aug. 9, 30, Sept. 13, 27, Oct. 11, 25. Produce, arts and crafts, bakery and frozen soups. 414-708-0584 Hartford Farmers Market Recreation Center, 147 N. Rural St. 7 am – 1 pm, Saturdays through Nov. 15. 262-673-7193 Howell Avenue Farmers Market U.S. Bank, 4015 S. Howell Ave 8:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m., July through October. Fresh produce through the summer. 414-881-1185 Jefferson Farmers Market Rotary Park 4 pm – 8 pm, June 11, 25; July 16, 30; Aug. 13, 27. 920-674-5144 Juneau Farmers Market Courthouse Square, 127 E. Oak St. 8 am – noon, Fridays through October. Fresh produce and crafts. 920-386-3359 or juneauwi.org
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Kenosha Farmers Market Various locations Columbus Park, 22nd Ave. and 54th St. (Wednesdays and Saturdays), Lincoln Park, 22nd Ave. and 69th St. (Thursdays), Baker Park, Sheridan Rd. and 66th St. (Fridays). 6 am – noon, Tuesday – Friday, 6 am – 1 pm Saturdays through November. kenosha.org/departments/parks/farmers.html Kenosha Harbor Market Kenosha HarborPark 9 am – 2 pm, Saturdays through October. Organic meats, cheeses, breads, art, crafts and live chef demonstrations and music. 262-914-1252 or kenoshaharbormarketplace.com Lake Geneva Farmers Market Horticultural Hall, 330 Broad St. 8 am –1 pm, Thursdays through October. Fresh flowers, wide variety of vegetables, homemade crafts, quilts and clothing for infants. 262-248-7598 Lake Mills Open Market Common Park, East Lake St. 4 pm – 8 pm, Wednesdays through October. 920-648-2344 or lakemills.org Mayville Farmers Market Main St. 7 am – 11 am, Wednesdays through Oct. 29. Fresh vegetables, local home-grown produce, crafts and plants. 920-387-1167 Menomonee Falls Farmers Market North Jr. High parking lot, Main St. just west of Appleton Ave. 8 a.m. – 4 p.m., Wednesdays through Nov. 26. 9 a.m. – 2 p.m., Sundays, August – October (except Sept. 28). Fresh vegetables, eggs, bakery, fresh flowers (annuals and perennials), crafts and honey. 262-251-8797 or menomoneefallsdowntown.com
Milwaukee Public Market Outdoor Urban Market St. Paul Ave. & Water St. 9 am – 3 pm, Saturdays and Sundays, June 14- Oct. 26. Unlimited free parking on weekends. Themed events weekly, including kids’ day and art day. Wisconsin-grown produce, jewelery, accessories, artwork, live music, prepared food and chef demonstrations. 414-336-1111 or milwaukeepublicmarket.com Oconomowoc Farmers Market Lake Terrace Parking Lot, 1380 W. Wisconsin Avenue 7 am – noon, Saturdays through Oct. 25. Produce, flowers, arts and crafts. 262-567-2666 or oconomowoc.org Port Washington Farmers Market E Main St between Post Office and Franklin St. 8 am – noon, Saturdays, July 5 through Oct. 25. Organic produce, garden art, jams, jellies, bakers, music and cooking demonstrations. Local nonprofits prepare food for each week. 262-305-4220 or portwashingtonchamber.com Racine Market on the Square Main Street 9 am – 2 pm, 2nd Saturday of the month, June – September. A European-style open market; breads, art, jewelry, organic soap and candles. 262-634-6002 or racinedowntown.com/farmersmarket.html continued on page 8
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Riverwest Gardeners Market Garden Park, Locust and Bremen St. 11 am – 4 pm, Saturdays, June 15 – Oct. 26. Local produce, organics, flowers, herbs and live music. 414-265-7278
Racine Southside Farmer’s Market Regency Mall parking lot, 5538 Durand Ave. 8 am – 12 pm, Tuesdays, Fridays through Oct. 31. Seasonal fruits and vegetables. 262-886-6197
Thiensville Farmers Market Sherman Park Farmers Market Friestedt at Main St. in Walgreen’s parking lot Sherman Perk Coffee, 49th St. & Roosevelt Ave. 8 am – 6 pm Tuesdays, June 3-Oct. 28. 8 am – 2 pm, Saturdays/Sundays through Exclusively homegrown vegetables, meats and Sept. 1. Wide range of produce, fruit and flowers. poultry, flowers, honey, herbs, bakery and other 414-875-7375 edible items. 262-242-2464 Skelly’s Farm Market 2344 Hayner Rd., Janseville 9 am – 6 pm, daily through October. Homegrown tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, zucchini, and other veggies as they become available. Fresh donuts daily! 608-754-7074 or skellysfarmmarket.com 10th Anniversary! South Shore Farmers Market (Bay View) South Shore Park, 2900 South Shore Drive 8 am – noon, Saturdays, June 21- Oct. 18. Over 40 vendors selling organic produce, coffee, bakery, jellies, syrup, fruit and more. 414-744-0408 South Milwaukee Farmers Market St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 1304 Manitoba Ave. 9 am – 2 pm, Thursdays through October. Bedding plants, fresh and dried flowers, apples, berries, baked goods, chickens, eggs, lamb and a large selection of local produce. 262-835-4386
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Walworth County Farmers Market Courthouse Square 8 am – noon, Saturdays, June 7 – Oct. 18. uwex.edu/ces/cty/Walworth/ag/farmersmarket Watertown Fair Day Riverside Park, 850 Labaree St. 7 am – 1 pm, Tuesdays through Nov. 11 (except July 1, 29). Seasonal produce, bedding plants, floral arrangements, honey, crafts, specialty meats, bakery, demonstrations. 920-261-6320 Watson Street Farmers Market Village Green, 400 Watson St. 7 am – 1 pm, Tuesdays, Saturdays through October. Local produce, baked goods, preserves and much more. 920-748-7466 or riponmainst.com
Waukesha Farmers Market Riverfront Plaza 7 am – noon, Saturdays through Oct. 25, plus 2:30 pm – 6:30 pm starting July 15. Local produce, naturally raised meats, Wisconsin cheeses, honey, bakery, preserves, jams and crafts. 262-549-6154 West Allis Farmers Market 1559 S. 65th St. at National Avenue Noon – 6 pm Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1 pm – 6 pm Saturdays through Nov. 29. Plants, produce, flowers, meat, herbs and more. All items locally grown by the farmer or on family farms. 414-302-8652 or ci.west-allis.wi.us West Bend Farmers Market Old Settlers Park 7:30 am – 11 am, Saturdays, June 7- Oct. 25. Fresh produce, fruits, baked goods, jams, jellies, honey, live music and demonstrations. 262-338-3909 or downtownwestbend.com West Town Farmers Market Zeidler Union Square, 301 W. Michigan St. 10 am – 3 pm, Wednesdays, June 4 – Oct. 29. Over 40 vendors offering local produce and flowers, plus prepared foods and artwork. Live music weekly. 414-276-6696 or westtown.org Whitewater Farmers Market Wal-Mart lot off Main St, 1609 Turtle Mound Cir. 8 am – noon, Saturdays through Nov. 1. Home-grown produce, fruits, plants, crafts and bakery. 262-473-3221 or ci.whitewater.wi.us
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Vital Source | 9
[ Write On ]
2
I
n early 2007, the VITAL staff decided to hold a local literary competition. We did our research and learned that the average submission length in established fiction contests is 5,000 to 10,000 words – or 5 to 10 printed pages. That sounded fair, but out of our reach given our compact, 32-page size. And it would definitely squeeze out poets, who were also a high priority for us. Ultimately, in the interest of inclusivity, we invited both short stories and poems, but space dictated capping word counts at 1,500. If you’ve ever written down an idea longer than a grocery list, you won’t be surprised that it severely limited our entrants’ ability to let their narratives breathe. This was obvious to us as soon as submissions started coming in. Many of the stories were clearly excerpted from longer pieces;
some got off to a beautiful, fluid start and then rushed to an awkward finish, and a few managed to move from beginning to end with some fluidity. In the end, we were proud to print the winners, even though felt we’d done a disservice to the authors who participated. We hope we’ve corrected our error now, even though it meant sacrificing poetry for 2008. So enjoy our two winning stories in print and visit our website [vitalsourcemag. com] for these and our three honorable mention entries by Justin Burke, Jason Hart and Ken Olson. All five will read their work at Schwartz on Downer Ave. on June 12 the details for which are also on our site. One of our judges, best-selling author and Alverno English professor Carole Barrowman, will also premiere excerpts from her just-completed novel.—Jon Anne Willow
It was already mostly bone when he found it, the rooster, white ends picked clean, marrow exposed, sucked dry, bone still stuck here and there with pieces of feather, little strings of meat. The head was untouched, preserved, pristine, by craig reinbold except for the eyes, which had been eaten. Chickens will eat their own, once it’s dead, if it’s left, if it’s not cleaned, not disposed of. It had been there for days. He only found it then because she had driven off that morning and in the new quiet he had heard them — and remembered it had been a week since they’d been fed. That was the morning. Now it’s night, a Friday in August. The air is warm, the sky is clear, and at this time, this far out from the city, there is nothing to do. He sits at the edge of the patio behind their house, a glass with more whisky than coke on the concrete beneath his hand. His feet kick at the dirt that will still someday — he hopes — be grass. He listens for something, but there is nothing to listen for and he knows that — this is what he wanted. To live next to nothing, and in doing so to have everything. That was the idea, his idea. The chickens had been hers. He can barely hear them now, all their squawking, though there are a dozen of them twenty feet from the house, cooped up. He thinks of sleeping, but doesn’t want to move. Stars, stars, trees, and darkness, and nothing in the world to do. He wonders when she will come home. They drove his Civic out to the lot on a Sunday so Sarah could see the land before they made it theirs. Forty minutes on the freeway, twenty more on small roads past land separated by wires and fences. It was being offered cheap. The owners were an old retired couple. One
had died, the other was put in a home. They had lived there less than a year. The house was almost new, but none of their family wanted to live that far out, better to sell it quick, get what they could for it. The mailbox was one of those big specialty mailboxes, painted with a muscular bass splashing out of green water, an oversized hook caught in its lip. The driveway was unpaved and lined on either side by a row of small pines. They parked the car, stepped out onto the gravel. Some small deciduous trees, it was hard to tell what kind exactly, were scattered around the yard. “Someday these trees are going to be big.” “Where’s the grass, George?” “He said the yard needed some work.” She surveyed their potential land. “Is the house at least finished?” “He said it’s in perfect shape.” They looked towards the single-story saltbox house at the bottom of the driveway, light-blue, with a black shingled rooftop. “The yard’s why we can get it so cheap.” “Right.” He ran his hand along a branch of pine needles. “I think it has a lot of potential.” He looked around the yard once more. “There should be a key under a rock by the doorstep.” “Under a rock?” “That’s what he said. Probably not much crime in the neighborhood.” “There’s not much neighborhood in the neighborhood,” she said.
Chickens
10 | covered | Vital Source
{} He opens his eyes at exactly 7:45 to the sunlight breaching the turtle green curtains they’d hung from the window. For a second he thinks about going
2008 fiction contest
into work, but it is Saturday. The store is closed. He pulls the blanket over his head, cocoons himself there, until the heat finally makes his nest unbearable. Drops his feet onto the hardwood floor just before 8:30, and before he can ask himself what to do next he starts shaving, and draws water for a bath. He looks around for her bath salts, or the bubble bath he’s seen lying around in its pink bottle. When the tub is full he steps in, slowly, letting the skin on his legs settle in to the sensation of needles. He remembers reading a story of a woman who spent days in a bathtub, nothing else to do. A bathtub with rose petals. He wonders if rose petals here, now, would change anything. The hairs on his ankles, underwater, glide back and forth when he moves his feet — the hot water, the sensation of needles. {} The front door was painted gray, contrasting the light blue siding. It opened into an anteroom, the walls a soft off-white, red stenciling by the ceiling. A wooden bench ran the length of one wall; a closet and a wooden coat rack were built into another. “Not too bad.” “The stenciling is a bit much,” she said. They went from room to room. There were still some paintings and photos on the walls. Most of the furniture was still there, too, though a few big pieces had obviously been moved, had left sharp dimples in the carpet. “I feel like we should take our shoes off.” She nodded, walked into the dining room. “It’s like a museum. Their table is still here.” Covered with white linen. Also a China cabinet, and a small buffet. She brushed a wrinkle out of the tablecloth. “The realtor said that whatever’s here the family didn’t want. We can take it or leave it. If we don’t want anything he said he’d pay for the movers.” There were three bedrooms. One of them had an old-looking woodenframed bed, and two matching dressers. The other rooms were empty. He stood in one of the doorways. “We could fit fifteen kids in here, ten easy.” She walked past him, down the hall towards the kitchen. It wasn’t big, or small. A door off to the side led to a laundry room. From there, another, heavier door led to the garage. A big mahogany table took up a quarter of the space, four sturdy, matching chairs set around it. He sat on one, eyed the ‘Peanuts’ magnet left on the door of the refrigerator. “It’s not too bad,” she said, walked to the sink and looked out the rectangle window into the backyard. She turned the faucet on. Clear water shot out. She turned it off. “Got to do something about that yard, though.” “A lot of people use sod these days.” She leaned over the sink. “Looks like there’s a patio.” “We can work with that.” He stood up to look. “And a giant bird cage.” He pressed his face to the window next to hers. {} Her pink razor is still on the edge of the tub, by his feet. She took nothing with her. That thought gives him some comfort. He’s used a razor like that one before, on her, shaving her legs for her back when they would sit in the tub together, crowded but warm, his hands roaming her soapy legs. After the first time, they had made love, wet, on the tile floor. He pulls the plug, feels the water suck against his skin until it’s gone and he is left in an empty bathtub, still wet, getting cold. {} They left the house through the garage, stepping past old shovels, an axe worn smooth, a hoe, a push-mower missing a wheel, some outdoor furniture, a table, some white chairs. They walked behind the house. Sure enough, past the patio was a cage,
2008 fiction contest
wide planks around the bottom and top, wire mesh strung between. Two by fours stood for pillars. The roof was plywood with a layer of shingling. Neither of them had been inside a chicken coop. The ground was covered with straw, discolored and damp. The smell of mildew and feathers. He pulled his head out into fresh air. “I guess they took the chickens with them.” {} He’s out back when he hears the phone, reaches it on the fourth ring. “Sarah?” “Yeah.” Her voice is steady, clear coming through the receiver. “Where are you?” “In town. Where I said I’d be.” “I called Karen’s. You weren’t there.” She exhales into the phone. “I come and go as I please, George.” “Of course. I didn’t mean…” “Why did you call anyway?” “I wanted to talk. You didn’t answer your cell phone.” “What did you want to talk about?” “You know what I wanted to talk about.” “No George, I don’t.” A pause. “I wanted to know if you’d done it yet.” He thinks he can hear his heart beat in the quiet, the soft static of the phone line. “Not yet.” “It’s not too late. We can still …” “I don’t know what I’m going to do.” “I don’t want you to do it.” “It’s not up to you, George.” He listens to the small, distant, breathy sounds she makes. “What did you call me for?” Tries to remember feeling that breath, warm, on his neck, his face. “I don’t know. I’ll call back later.” The line clicks, goes to a hum. He goes to the fridge, takes three beers out of a six-pack. Drinks the first quick, takes the other two outside. Drinks the second feeding the chickens. Has the third when he finishes. He passes the day this way, waiting, for the sun to go down, for the digits on the stove to tell him it is okay to go to sleep. He waits for his wife to come home, to find out if he is still going to be a father. {} They walked around the coop, kicking up dust from the uncovered dirt. He stepped on a golf ball, picked it up, threw it towards the trees at the back of the property. It made it about a fifth of the way. She stuck her fingers in the wire mesh and rattled the cage. “Seems solid.” They sat on the patio. The dirt was littered with rocks, some big enough to see from fifty yards away. There was another door leading from the laundry room to the patio, the doorframe was the same gray as the doorframe in the front. She picked up a handful of dirt, let it fall, wiped the dust on her pants. “It’s going to be some work. But I think we should do it.” He put his arm around her. “Nothing we can’t handle.” “And I want to get some chickens.” “Chickens?” “Just a few. I figure the hard part’s already over.” She kissed him, just above his collar. “We’ve already got the coop.” {} She comes home while he’s throwing corn to the chickens. The sun is getting high — in another hour the air will be hot. With a jerk of his wrist he throws a handful against the back wall of the coop. continued on page 12
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The kernels fall to the floor, ring like hailstones against the wood. He drops a handful by his feet and the chickens turn, push their way towards him. He throws another handful to the back, waits for them to run that way, then drops another handful by his feet. They run back. It’s a game he likes to play. That’s when he hears the engine of a car in the driveway. He opens the back door to the laundry room just as she opens the door from the garage. He follows her into the kitchen. She draws a glass of water from the sink. He sits at the table, stretches his legs across the linoleum. She finishes the water, faces him. “I’ve made a decision, George.” He sits up. “Please do tell.” She walks towards the table, puts her hands on the back of a chair. “I’m too young to start a family.” “We are a family, Sarah — the two of us.” “You know what I’m saying. I’m too young for kids.” She looks at him. “I don’t even know if I want them. At least not right now.” “And you decided this when exactly?” He rubs his eyes, sets his palms on the tabletop. “Just now. Yesterday. After I talked to you.” “Yesterday?” He spits out that word, yesterday. “I was never sure.” “Weren’t you?” She walks to the sink, fills another glass of water. “I’m not ready for this. Maybe I thought I was, but I’m not.” “And what about us?” She drinks half the glass, wipes the water away from her lips with her sleeve. “Some time apart.” He nods. “You decided this yesterday, too?” “I’ve been thinking about it for awhile.” He doesn’t say anything to that. “It’s for the best, George.” “For your best?” “Our best, George.” She dumps the rest of the water in the sink. He sits forward like he might stand up, but he doesn’t. “You could still have the baby. Give it to me. I won’t ask for anything else. Just give it to me.” She faces the window over the sink. “It’s not that simple. You know that.” He presses the palm of his hand to his forehead, squeezes his temples until it hurts. “Why are you doing this to me, Sarah?” “This isn’t about you, George.” “You don’t have to raise your voice to me.” “Well, you … don’t … seem … to hear me.” “Well, what if I never get another chance, Sarah? What if this is it for me?” “There’ll be plenty of chances for you, George. If I’m worried about anyone, it’s me. But this is what I need to do now. I know that for sure.” She faces him. “I’m not doing this to hurt you, George. I need you to recognize that.” “But you are, Sarah!” His fist comes down hard on the mahogany. The movement catches them both by surprise; she jumps; his eyes widen at the sudden pain in his hand. He takes a breath, lets it out. “Have the baby, Sarah. Have it, leave it with me, and go do whatever you want. Please.” She stands up straight, closes her eyes, opens them, looks at the clock above the stove. “I have to go. I told Karen to pick me up at 12:30.” “You’ve got it all planned out, don’t you.” She drags her eyes over to him. “Just leave it alone, George.” “And that’s it? That’s everything. You leave, and I sit here.” “You can do whatever you want, George. Just like me.” She looks around the kitchen. “I’ll be back for everything later. I don’t want to deal with it now.” She takes a step towards the door, stops, turns around. “I want you to know something.”
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“What?” Doesn’t look up from the table. She runs a hand along doorframe. “Nevermind. Goodbye, George.” She walks out. The door closes and she’s gone. Suddenly he’s thirsty. He stands, moves towards the sink but finds himself opening the door to the garage, walking past the shovels, old, rusted, discarded, past the crippled lawnmower. His hand falls, unthinkingly, on the hoe, its wood handle smooth, its head sharp and angled. In two quick strides he’s outside. She’s in front of him, walking slow, talking into a phone. He stands, those few steps behind her, his feet twisting on the gravel, grinding rock against rock. She stops, turns halfway around, freezes. He feels the weight of the hoe in his hand, fingers curled around the wood, the oil from his skin and the pressure of his fist working the handle imperceptibly smoother. A hot breeze sweeps across the driveway blowing a cloud of dust onto them. A fine brown powder settles on her hair, is absorbed into the drops of sweat rolling down his face. The gravel scrapes under his feet as his weight shifts. Her breath sticks in her lungs: the dust, the heat, the reflection of sunlight in the dull shine of metal. She turns her back to him, raising one foot, setting it down, raising the next, slowly, delicately. Gulps a breath. Another breath. Another step. He watches her, the hoe in his hand. He watches her quicken her pace until, finally, she reaches the road. He watches a black Sedan meet her. He watches the door open, close, watches her disappear. A second later the car is gone, then the sound of the car. The wind blows against his face, its heat drying the dust to his skin. He drops the hoe. The blade strikes the ground with a tinny sound, and bits of gravel scatter. He walks back into the house, into the kitchen, thinks about pouring a glass of water. A second later he’s back outside watching a string of clouds slide across the sky. The only sound is the distant squawk a chicken makes, when it’s left wanting for attention. {} They sat together on the patio, elbows rubbing, feet kicking at the dirt that would someday be grass. Kissed her neck, her skin warm to his lips. “It’s nice isn’t it?” “So quiet.” A squawk from nearby breaking the silence. “Listen to how loud that thing is.” He looked from her to the coop to her. “All your idea, remember that.” She pinched him and he laughed. The first chicken managed a more piercing pitch. The others joined him, spitting out loud, unintelligible things, a cacophony of chicken sounds. “They’re going to need to be fed,” he said, finally. “Let them fend for themselves tonight. They’ll be fine.” They stood up and looked at their world — dark patches of soil, sprinkled with seed, covered with straw, the occasional stone glinting in the starlight, in the distance a line of evergreen trees, and above them a billion stars. In the foreground stood the chicken coop, emanating the sharp sounds of a fowl language. Rooster words asking for nothing, he supposed, and wanting nothing, but to survive. He followed her into the house, closed the door behind them. They could see everything through the thin pane of glass, but from where they stood, the bestial noise had been reduced to nothing.
2nd place on page 14
2008 fiction contest
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The Phreaks
I knew this guy, babe, he could do things with his mouth you ain’t never seen. And I ain’t talking about sex here, all right? All right? Get your head out of the gutter and listen to me, because this is a story that’s gonna blow your mind. There was a guy named Steve who by ken brosky called himself Nines and a guy named Simon who called himself Case. And they were both Phreaks — not the kind we used to make fun of back in high school, not those freaks. I’m talking about Phreaks, babe: phone hackers. Guys who could work the phone system like a clitoris. They could do things that weren’t even supposed to be possible. Getting free calls was just the beginning for these guys, babe. Let me start with Nines, because Nines was the godfather of them all. Nines didn’t really start the whole idea of phone hacking, I don’t think, because there’s no way to tell who really first started hacking phones, you know? But Nines was something incredible, and he knew it and he flaunted it. What did he do? I’ll tell you what he fucking did. He whistled. It all started in the 1960s, when Cap’n Crunch cereal included a free toy whistle in every box. The whistle just so happened to produce a 2600hz tone, which is the exact same tone that AT&T used as a steady signal for unused long-distance lines. Bear with me, babe, bear with me. I’m gonna explain this so even you understand it and appreciate it. What happened was someone figured out that by dialing a number and blowing the whistle into the phone, the phone company was tricked into assuming that the line wasn’t being used. After you blew the whistle, you could call anyone in the world for free. You get it, babe? We’re talking free phone calls anywhere in the world, just by blowing that whistle into the phone. Think of AT&T Bell as a big fat bitch—she’s tough to get by, but she’s gotta have a sweet tooth of some kind. You get it? Good, so get this: Nines taught himself to whistle that tone. Not only did he match the 2600hz pitch, he could whistle all of the tones for each of the numbers, which made it even easier to dial free long-distance anywhere. It started as a parlor trick, something he could do at college parties to get free beer or to get laid. Hey, how bad could that have been? Sure the guy was ugly as hell, but those longdistance bills to the parents could put a dent in the drinking money. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t consider it, babe — three minutes of sex with the lights out in exchange for a free half hour of family talk? Hell, I’d consider too, back in those days when there weren’t any cell phones and shit. We’ll get back to the sex, because the sex turns out to be pretty important. But first, let me tell you about Case. Case came about ten years later, when more phreaks were running around, only these phreaks used to make their own toy boxes to copy the 2600hz dial tone because no one could copy what Nines was doing. No one else could get that whistle right, so they invented all these boxes that could trick the phone companies. Everything was starting to get a lot more complicated and serious. Turns out those wires outside your home lead to some pretty fucking amazing shit somewhere in Ma Bell’s stomach, and everyone was trying to figure out what got her hot. A spunky little teenager in Iowa was suddenly figuring out ways to listen in on conversations inside the FBI office in D.C., and that guy liked to call himself Case. Case hated Nines because Nines wasn’t the first. A deaf guy by the name Engressia was the first to copy the 2600hz tone, but Nines always claimed to be the original. They both had mutual friends who were hacking the phone system, and so there had to eventually be a confrontation. No one I’ve ever talked to really knows exactly what happened, but here’s what I heard. They were both drunk, and you know how passionate drunks can be. Have a beer with someone from the Green Party once, babe, and I swear you’ll want to go burn down a fucking forest. For these guys, a phone wasn’t just a phone. The phone system was one big giant computer, a system they could
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infiltrate — for Nines, it meant learning about the system. For Case, it meant corrupting the system and causing as much havoc as possible. “A computer is a system made to be explored,” Nines said that night. I don’t know, I’m making this shit up — what they said was probably pretty close, but this isn’t word-for-word, babe. “No,” Case said. He was probably drinking a Budweiser because that’s what people like Case drink. Case was probably sitting on one of the couches even if the party was packed, because he was a short guy and he hated being around tall people. “A system is made to be infiltrated and taken advantage of.” Nines shook his head. “The discovery of a new system, a new connection … that’s what makes it so exciting. The idea that you can connect with anyone, at any time, simply by finding your way through a series of circuits … that in itself is the fundamental reason for phreaking.” “You’re full of shit,” Case said, hardly able to control his passion with such a steady demeanor. Or maybe it was the five beers he had already downed. “It’s the idea that you can do anything inside the system. When you find a way to bypass the system, to get through to someone you’re not supposed to get through to, when you discover that which should not be discovered, then you’ve achieved success.” You like that? I’m trying to talk like them, all philosophical and shit, and all educated, but maybe they weren’t like that. That’s not the point, babe. This is the point: We’re talking light side vs. dark side, babe. Star Wars back when Empire Strikes Back first came out, and you know what happened to the good guys in that one. There was no way to stop it — the more Nines talked about exploration and discovery, the more pissed off Case got. Those who didn’t take advantage of Ma Bell’s weaknesses were just as weak as her, from Case’s point-of-view. He couldn’t take it. He would put Nines in his place once and for all and show everyone exactly what the future of hacking looked like. It was decided by mutual friends that the only way to settle this type of situation was with a quick-draw. They went into D.C.’s subway and staked out a group of payphones tucked away next to The Newsstand and set the rules: Nines and Case would both take a phone and find a way to call The Newsstand without knowing the number and without using 411. That meant some serious phone hacking, babe. It was right there, but without a phone book how were they supposed to figure out the number? Everyone was probably pretty nervous. Everyone but Case and Nines, because they already knew exactly how they were going to call that telephone sitting just ten feet away. Case got the jump because he used his own hand-held device. Since he couldn’t mimic the 2600hz tone, he had already figured out a way to trick the phone into thinking money was being put in. Every time someone put a nickel or a dime or a quarter into a payphone, it makes a distinct tone. We’re talking millisecond time windows here, babe, but Case figured out how to emulate them with one of his old Apple II computers and in a few seconds flat he was dialing into the mainframe. I don’t know what a mainframe is, either. Think of it this way: it’s kinda like how your cell phone connects to a satellite, I think. Something like that, only with wires and shit. Old school, babe … old school shit. Nines took the old-fashioned route, and he suffered early on. He whistled his perfect tone to trick Ma Bell, then dialed a new number that would put him in touch with an automated response system. Whenever he was prompted with a new request, Nines whistled the numbers into the speaker. People who were there said it was one of the most beautiful things they had ever heard, as if Nines was conducting a symphony instead of tricking a stupid old computer system on the fly, like all of the tones he was whistling were actually some sort of pre-orchestrated song. Case took a more direct approach. He connected with an operator from the phone company, talking to her in a low monotone voice like he was just another Joe Blow phone company worker. “Maintenance engineer,” he said, “ring-forward to two-one-three, plus four-zero-four,” and Case just kept going like that, following some secret corporate phone company protocol that he must have lifted from some phone worker. And don’t forget the smile on his
2008 fiction contest
face when you’re picturing this, babe. You know Case took pleasure in this, standing there deceiving some poor old woman on the other line who probably had never even heard of hacking through telephones and Case loved every moment of it. Maybe he could whistle the different tones. Maybe he didn’t just because he got a better rush from tricking a real human being. Maybe computers weren’t good enough prey for him. By the time Case was being redirected to the second operator, Nines was already somewhere in Russia, finding his way through some sort of backdoor, heading to Japan to be redirected to the states, whistling each number like he was reading sheet music for some unfinished fugue composed by Mozart. Nines was in his own world, with his eyes closed, running his fingers along every naked space of Ma Bell’s back, treating her the way a really good guy does to a woman he knows he doesn’t deserve — like me with you, babe, how I’m crazy about you and I can’t stop thinking about you because I want to know everything there is about you. Case just wanted to fuck her, and Ma Bell knew it. That was why she had so many defenses up in the first place, because she knew most guys were scum and she had to be ready. When he had made it to the subway’s central hub, someone he was talking to from AT&T’s center must have gotten suspicious and routed him to an automated voice message. And when he couldn’t bypass the message with any of the usual tricks, he started to get frustrated. There had to be some way because there’s always some way to get past those voice messages and talk to a real person, but Ma Bell was wise to Case’s usual sweet talk and so she changed it up a bit on the fly, and those few seconds it took to get through the automated system was all Nines needed to sneak in through the back. When the heavy ogre working The Newsstand picked up his phone, it took a full three seconds for Nines’ voice to reach the end of the other line. The line was stretched entirely around the globe, barely an echo even though the two were only twenty feet away from each other. It was the most attention Nines had ever gotten. All of Case’s friends became friends of Nines, and even some of the cooler college folk who heard about it all started talking to him. The only nerd more popular than Nines on campus was a guy by the name of Joe Stevens, who was selling blue boxes in the dorms that would let people make free phone calls, and Stevens — unbeknownst to Nines — was using a recording of Nines’ 2600hz whistle to sell the damn thing. Funny how the circle of life works, babe. Case got the respect of Nines’ friends, too, but Case didn’t want more friends. For Case, it wasn’t about gaining respect or popularity or a few free drinks at the bars on Water Street. For Case, it was all about dominance. It always had been, right from the start when he first conned his way through the first operator at Microsoft and listened in on a conference call with a young bastard by the name of Bill Gates. When Case saw a chance to strike back, he took it. It wasn’t until a year later, during their junior year of college, toward the end of the second semester, when D.C. was really starting to warm up and everyone was okay with walking the extra few blocks to some of the more happening bars that had two floors and lots of space for dancing. Case and Nines were always together because they had the same circle of friends, and neither really objected to it. Nines didn’t mind Case’s company and Case probably didn’t mind Nines all that much, either. But amicable terms weren’t enough to stop Case from seizing an opportunity to make his point. Nines was crazy about one girl — just one, babe, out of everyone on campus. It was the type of girl Nines could probably have gotten, too, if he hadn’t been such a loser with women. Remember, the only reason he got laid in the dorms on occasion was when some girl was out of money and had to call home. And Nines knew this girl wasn’t like the others. Case saw it immediately the first time she walked by when they were sitting in the cafeteria. It wasn’t until their junior year of college, toward the end of the second semester, when it was okay to start drinking heavily again because no one would have to worry about passing out in a snow bank and freezing to death.
2008 fiction contest
Case had enough alcohol in him that night to not give a shit about anything. He may not have necessarily considered Nines a friend by that point, but the two were, at the very least, on amicable terms. Associates, friends of friends who knew friends, I guess. Not that it mattered — Case probably would have done the same thing to his best friend, given the chance, because he loved the challenge of infiltrating and corrupting the system. Only in this case, the system was a five-foot-four sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. He knew exactly how to penetrate her circle of friends, had already made friends with one of them through an ex-roommate who dated her. This was what he did, on the phone and off: he figured out how to penetrate the system, and he listened and tested until he had everything perfect. By the time he had already bypassed the girl’s wingmen, Nines had made his way to the other side of the bar, trying not to watch but you know he had to glance over there once or twice. You know how that feels, don’t you, babe? Seeing someone you’re crazy about talking to someone else, probably using a horrible pick-up line to boot? The only difference is Case didn’t need a pick-up line. He knew exactly what to tell this girl to penetrate her security system. He knew exactly what it would take to get her to come home with him and he didn’t care what happened to her afterward. Nines watched everything, and you probably have a good idea of what he was feeling. Everybody does, I think. It’s that feeling deep in your stomach that presses against your heart and squeezes the air out of your lungs so that you can only breathe in short breaths and you have to lean hard against something to keep from falling over. Nines got all of that right there, and he never really got over it. The good news is Case eventually faded out. Ma Bell got wise to his tactics after he began gaining notoriety and she worked hard to make sure he could never get too deep inside her system again and pretty soon, everything was automated and protected a hundred times over. His notoriety at the bars started getting around, too, and women kept an eye out for him to make sure their friends wouldn’t fall for his tricks. It’s the curse of the phreak, I guess: when you get too famous for being too good, you get targeted until you’re no longer a threat. Case probably works a desk job somewhere now and occasionally drops a number to a woman at a bar, but with obsolete phreaking skills he probably doesn’t even know how to talk to a woman anymore. Nines, in typical sensitive-guy fashion, let the entire experience traumatize him permanently. It was probably more than that, I guess, but he never really seemed to get over his own insecurities with women. It was like Case was just another guy, and what he did with women was as common as underage drinking, as if every woman was susceptible to an immediate one-nighter. And believe me, it’s not that easy, babe. Case had a talent, no doubt about it, but Nines didn’t understand that. So it came as no surprise when he was arrested a couple of years ago for tapping his girlfriend’s phone to listen in on her conversations. I know, babe, it’s a shame. Yeah, maybe they won’t be remembered ten years from now, and cell phones have changed the whole game now so guys like Nines are pretty irrelevant. But they paved the way for every other hacker who came afterwards, and maybe they added a little intrigue to the whole thing, too. And mark my words, babe: someday you’ll be standing outside of a store somewhere using a pay phone, and you’ll find yourself whistling into the receiver. VS
judges
Tea Benduhn has authored 20 children’s nonfiction books and a young adult novel that was shortlisted for the 2004 Lambda Literary Award. She has edited dozens of books and received her MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. Jay Johnson is Editor-in-Chief of the Cream City Review and a graduate student in fiction at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Carole Barrowman is a Professor of English at Alverno College and a regular reviewer and cultural arts contributor for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Her actor brother John Barrowman’s autobiography Anything Goes, which she co-wrote, is an international best-seller.
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Vital culture stages
MENOPAUSE—THE MUSICAL 6/3-6/29
FINE ARTS QUARTET 6/1, 8, 15, 22
ROAD TRIP With the local season wrapping up, theater lovers take to the road. Off to the west, Stage Q’s serves up Queer Shorts, its third annual LGBT shorts fest, while University Theatre debuts three new pieces by Wisconsin playwrights. A little further out, American Players Theatre opens its season with a pair of Shakespeare shows and a classic by Eugene O’Neil. In Door County, American Folklore Theatre opens its summer season with a pair of popular Alley/Kaplan musicals and the return of last year’s successful Cabin with a View. Closer to home, Present Music hosts ZooMusic: zoologically-inspired student compositions performed at various locations
THEATRICAL PREVIEWS WISCONSIN WRIGHTS NEW PLAY PROJECT University Theatre in Madison presents three new plays by Wisconsin playwrights: Choke Cherry Corners by Ludmilla Bollow, A Thousand Words by Gwendolyn Rice and Marcia Jablonski’s The Front Steps. June 5 – 7 at the Hemsley Theatre. 608-262-1500 or utmadison.com CELESTE & STARLA SAVE TODD & WIN BACK THE DAY Though ending is obvious, the play will still be interesting. Madison’s Mercury Players Theatre presents the adventure June 6 – 28 at MercLab. 608-661-YOYO or mercuryplayerstheatre.com A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM American Players Theatre in Spring Green opens its season with Shakespeare’s classic fantasy directed by William Brown. June 7 – October 5. 608-588-2361 or playinthewoods.org QUEER SHORTS 3 Stage Q in Madison hosts its third annual program of shorts celebrating contemporary LGBT theatre. June 12 – 21 at the Bartell Theatre. 606-661-9696 or stageq.com AH, WILDERNESS! Eugene O’Neil’s dramatic tale comes to Spring Green as the American Players Theatre opens
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ZOOMUSIC 6/6
throughout the Milwaukee County Zoo. The adventurous program features a fully costumed performance of a piece based on the classic children‘s book Where The Wild Things Are. Elsewhere, both the Florentine Opera and UWM bring classic music to local museums. UWM hosts a concert featuring William Lavonis and Jeffrey Peterson at the opening of the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Gilbert and George exhibit while the Florentine aurally decorates the Charles Allis Art Museum. In dance, faculty members of the UWM Dance Department showcase original choreography that plumbs unconscious depths in Summerdances: States of Mind.
the second show of its season. Directed by John Langs. June 13 – October 4. 608-588-2361 or playinthewoods.org LITTLE WOMEN The Waukesha Civic Theatre closes its season with Louisa May Alcott’s classic story of four Civil War-era sisters. June 13 – 29. 262-547-0708 or waukeshacivictheatre.org HENRY IV: THE MAKING OF A KING The final opening for the American Players Theatre in June is a streamlined presentation of Shakespeare’s tale of King Henry IV directed by James Bohnen. June 20 – September 20. 608-588-2361 or playinthewoods.org MENOPAUSE—THE MUSICAL The Theatre Council of Chicago brings the hit Jeanie Landers musical June 3 -29 to the Marcus Center’s Vogel Hall. 414-273-7206 or maruscenter.org FISHING FOR THE MOON American Folklore Theatre in Door County opens its season with this Fred Alley/James Kaplan musical set in rural Wisconsin after the Civil War. The romantic comedy was the first collaboration by the team responsible for Guys On Ice and Lumberjacks In Love. June 18 – August 30. 920-854-6117 or folkloretheatre.com A CABIN WITH A VIEW For the second summer in a row, the American
Folklore Theatre presents this Dave Hudson/ Paul Libman musical homage to A Room With A View. In 1959, a UW student’s life changes on a vacation out West. June 19 – August 30. 920-854-6117 or folkloretheatre.com JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR Shorewood Players Theatre presents the rock musical June 20 – 29 at the Shorewood High School Auditorium. 414-737-3421 or shorewoodplayers.org
MUSIC OF NOTE FINE ARTS QUARTET: SUMMER EVENINGS OF MUSIC To celebrate the 25th anniversary of three of the Quartet’s players performing together, each member will be joined by a family member for one of the four performances in this series. Helen Bader Concert Hall June 1, 8, 15 and 22. 414-229-4308 or arts.uwm.edu FEEL THE HEAT: THE SOUNDS OF SUMMER The Sunset Playhouse presents a main stage summer concert featuring a number of popular songs on June 2. 262-782-4430 or sunsetplayhouse.org PROGRESSIONS SPRING HONORS CONCERT The Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra presents their spring honors concert featuring so-
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stages Vital culture los, duets and orchestral performances June 5 at the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center. 414-267-2950 or myso.org ZOOMUSIC Present Music presents a clever concert at the Milwaukee County Zoo featuring students from Milwaukee area schools performing animalinspired music they have composed on June 6. 414-271-0711 or presentmusic.org 1950s: THE GOLDEN AGE Jack Everly conducts the MSO Pops in a musical tribute to the influential decade. June 6 – 8 at the Marcus Center. 414-291-7605 or mso.org PRIME TIME BRASS Under the direction of Dr. Patricia Backhaus, the 35-member Milwaukee Festival Brass ensemble performs an evening of popular, classical and British brass band music on June 7 at the United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay. 414-423-9760 or mfbrass.org SOUNDS OF SATURDAY UWM’s Peck School of the Arts presents tenor William Lavonis and pianist Jeffrey Peterson at the June 7 opening of MAM’s exhibit featuring the work of groundbreaking avant-garde artists Gilbert Proesch and George Passmore, 414-229-4308 or arts.uwm.edu
June 19 – 21 at the Marcus Center. 414-291-7605 or mso.org PIANOARTS OPENING RECITAL PianoArts 2008 Competition and Music Festival opens with a performance by 19-year-old Michelle Naughton, winner of PianoArts’ 2006 Wisconsin Contestant Award. June 20 at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. 414-962-3055 or pianoarts.org PIANOARTS SEMINAL SOLO RECITALS PianoArts 2008 competition approaches its conclusion as semifinalists perform and speak about their work before a panel of judges. June 23 at the Charles Allis Art Museum. 414-962-3055 or pianoarts.org PIANOARTS FINALS AND AWARDS CONCERT PianoArts closes its 2008 Competition and Music Festival with a concert featuring three finalists performing complete Mozart or Beethoven concertos with the MSO at Wisconsin Lutheran College. 414-962-3055 or pianoarts.org
DANCE SUMMERDANCES: STATES OF MIND UWM Dance faculty members showcase origi-
nal choreography June 6 – 8 at the UWM Mainstage Theatre. Featuring work by Ed Burgess, Dani Kuepper, Luc Vanier and guest choreographer Uri Sands. 414-229-4308 or arts.uwm.edu SPRING DEPARTURE Danceworks presents the first in its Summer Dance Series June 6 and 7 at Danceworks Studio Theatre. 414-277-8480 or danceworks1661.org
ONGOING The Boys Next Door, Sunset Playhouse through June 8. 262-782-4430 or sunsetplayhouse.com Guys and Dolls, Racine Theatre Guild through June 8. 262-633-4218 or racinetheatre.org The Girl In The Frame, In Tandem Theatre through June 15. 414-444-6144 or intandemtheare.com The Spitfire Grill, Skylight Opera through June 15. 414-291-7800 or skylightopera.com 1,000 Channels through June 27. 414-426-4169 or alchemisttheatre.com
STORIES AND MUSIC Conductor Alexander Mickelthwate leads the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in a concert featuring works by Liszt, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich at the Marcus Center June 13 and 14. 414-291-7605 or mso.org THE CHAMPIONS SHOW Men’s a cappella group the Midwest Vocal Express performs a concert guest-starring international champion quartet Max Q. June 14 at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center. 414-766-5049 or mve.org FLORENTINE OPERA Enjoy an afternoon of opera and art at the Charles Allis Art Museum’s George McCormick Exhibit on June 15. The day includes live performances and a talk by Florentine General Director William Florescu. 414-291-5700 or florentineopera.org CLARITY AND WARMTH Exiting Music Director Andreas Delfs conducts the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in a concert featuring Strauss, Mozart and guest soloist Gil Shaham in a Brahms violin concerto.
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Vital Source | stages | 17
Film Festivals: Overview of the Underground >>By Howie Goldklang
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o you’re all lock, stock and two smoking laptops. You just hit the SAVE and RENDER button on your favorite editing program and the world is your painfully hip oyster. Next, you’ll burn a few DVDs and show off your kick-ass short film, starring your kick-ass friends with your kick-ass crew. The jokes kill, the sad stuff makes everyone’s eyes well up and their noses hurt at the top. Everyone high fives. The Facebook Wall posts come pouring in. But you’re back at your job on Monday … Now what? You’re in Milwaukee. Silver screens in NY, LA, Paris and Tokyo are thousands of miles away! Do you sell DVDs outta the back of your Hyundai hoping some producer “digs your style, man?” Hit “I’m Feeling Lucky” on Google and start sending your film to production companies around the world? At this point a lot of filmmakers bottleneck and never really move with their short film. But we’re in the Midwest, damnit! Our work ethic will power us through, right? Right! What you need is a Midwest-inspired marketing plan: a hustle better than your flow. Now pull VITAL closer and read the secret to getting you and your film off your Riverwest couch and out to the masses. Get the F*** into film festivals! Film festivals are the back door into the film world and simply filling out an application ain’t enough. Here are some tips and tricks to getting attention for your kick-ass Milwaukee film: BUILD YOUR OWN BRAND Your packaging needs a look and vibe that will make film festival programmers grab your film off the shelf and check it out. Hit up your graphic design buddy or post an ad on Craigslist for someone to make a pro cover, poster, DVD label, business card and press kit. One look = pro. One cool look = I will watch your film for more than 45 seconds. Live out that fantasy and create a cool poster and log line for your film. (A log line is your film skillfully summed up in 20 words or less.) Stack the credits at the bottom. Create a complete, finished product and it will lead programmers down the path to making your artwork into a big screen reality. You’ll show you have the full, pro package and are ready to rock. ONLINE Heed this call: both Sundance and Slamdance have online short film festivals that screen at the festival and are eligible for awards. ENTER THESE IMMEDIATELY. Sundance’s info is hidden in sundance.org so have fun with that. You can apply to Slamdance at slamdance.com and click ANARCHY ONLINE FILM FESTIVAL. Get to Park City now … git!
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SHORT FILM IS YOUR BUSINESS CARD Have a script ready for the feature idea that’s gone from bong smoke to short film to festivals and now beyond. Remember, you’re big time. SEND FESTIVAL PROGRAMMERS PIZZA They say it doesn’t help but it totally does. Drinks and sex work too. But we’re baby-stepping here, so start with pizza. FISH FOR POSTER BLURBS Get your film on YouTube or some website and email the link out to authors, local press peeps, filmmakers, musicians, CEOs or newsmakers of any kind to get quotes. You’d be surprised how many people will write back and give you a quick bite for your film poster and press kit. To them, it’s free publicity and you are dealing with vain entertainment people, so exploit the shit out of them. Yeah, I said it. FEATURE LOCAL BANDS IN YOUR FILM Even if you have no spot for music in your film (which I personally would call a damn shame), snag a local band or two for your opening and closing credits. Those like- minded, hungry independent artists will blow up message boards and cell phones telling all their hipster friends that their song is featured in a movie! Holler! USE YOUR NEW NETWORK So, you have your graphic designer, your band, your blurb people, and you and all your friends with their 10-years-in-the-making, ridiculously long email and cell phone lists. Organize a blast of emails, text messages, anything you can think of – a call to action to watch your film online. Tell them to leave comments. Tell them to forward the link to their friends. Festivals are all about breaking new filmmakers and when programmers peep your site and see this online groundswell, they’ll feel the pull and score your film higher, getting you closer to being selected. The key is organizing this blast before you submit your film, so be ready. Enough reading. Get moving and don’t forget to tell us how you’re doing on our REEL MILWAUKEE blog at vitalsourcemag.com. Howie DJs @ Burnheart’s, Red Room and Luna Lounge and sweeps up hair at The Establishment.
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Every day’s a holiday
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ne Friday in the middle of May, my children woke themselves early and were in the kitchen, dressed and ready for breakfast, by 6:30. As I poured my coffee, delighted that we were more than a half an hour ahead of schedule, my youngest ran at me. He grabbed me tight around the middle and shouted, “Happy High Interest Day, Mama!” My middle daughter joined in the hug. “Happy High Interest Day, everybody!” The chatter at the table was light and fun and when it was time to leave for school, the kids raced to the car.
The thrill in the air that day was due in equal part to two things. The first is obvious: my children love High Interest Day at their school. The idea of a whole day free to learn new sports, crafts and skills turns them on intellectually; they look forward to high interest day all year. The second may be less evident: we love holidays at our house, and are always looking for a way to have more of them. Holidays can be useful. No, really, they can! I have to admit, I’ve passed my preference for low-impact celebrations to the kids. Fourth of July and Halloween are our family favorites. Watching parades, cooking out, planning costumes and trick-or-treating have become tribe traditions, and the kids rely on knowing that the outline of these days is going to remain basically the same. As a matter of fact, we have built tribe traditions to celebrate almost every major holiday. These events give structure and a sense of ritual to the year, as they do for families all over the world.
the day “European Dinner Day,” and had snacks until supper was served around 9:00 p.m. It’s not even hard The need to celebrate must be hardwired. Those months between Valentine’s Day and Easter often stretch out bleakly before us. A similar sense of emotional drag occurs between Easter and Memorial Day. Finding excuses to dress up, have a party or spend the day outside laughing with friends and family relieves the tension of day-to-day life. It can revitalize sagging family morale, which benefits everyone for days afterward. We’ve found that it doesn’t take much in the way of advance planning or financial outlay. All it really requires is a desire to escape the ordinary and a willingness to change your attitude. We’ve done the same thing with chores like “Back to School Shopping Day” and “Welcome to our Rummage Sale Day.” These things are tedious, to be sure. I would go so far as to say they are events I typically dread. But declaring them holidays keeps the kids interested in what we’re doing and reminds me that almost anything can be a celebration if approached from the right perspective. VS
But created holidays are more spontaneous and just as joyful. They can also brighten almost any situation. Last winter a friend of ours decided to drive in from out of town for dinner and board games. The kids and I were excited for some levity in the middle of all that snow and cold. We planned the menu carefully and Lena helped me cook while Emma and Jeffrey “decorated” the table. About 30 minutes before she was due to arrive, she called to say that due to a series of setbacks, she was running late. She called back again a little while later; traffic was at a standstill and she wasn’t sure when it would be moving again. She encouraged us to eat without her. But the kids really wanted to wait for her, and were searching for a justification. We declared
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Vital living eat this
by catherine mcgarry miller + Photos by Erin Landry
Gone Fishing
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ummer is never so sweet as it is after a crushing winter. So it’s time to pull out the fishing rod and relax to the tune of water lapping at the shore. Here are two easy fish and shrimp dishes for your catch – with a cocktail to wash them down.
Fishbone’s Ragin’ Cajun Pasta
Tropical Salmon Fantasy + Summer Sensation Cocktail
Fishbones Cajun & Creole 1704 Milwaukee St., Delafield 262-646-4696 For the past eight years, Executive Chef Jessie Souza, formerly Corporate Chef for Louise’s in California and Milwaukee, has been wowing patrons with his Cajun-Creole fusion at Fishbones in Delafield. Diners enjoy the colorful, festive décor inside or peaceful view overlooking Lake Nagawicka from the bar or outside deck. Harkening to his roots, the chef has recently introduced a Mexican menu. Particularly notable are his crispy flautas with a moist, tasty chicken filling. ¾ lb andouille sausage ¾ lb grilled chicken 2 small tomatoes, chopped ½ c sliced mushrooms 1 pint heavy whipping cream 12 shrimp, cleaned 6 T olive oil Salt & pepper to taste Cajun seasoning to taste 1 lb spaghetti pasta (cooked) In a medium sauté pan, add the oil and heat for 2 minutes. Add the sausage and cook for 1 minute. Add chicken and cook for 1 minute. Add shrimp and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes and mushrooms, cook for 3-4 minutes. Next add the whipping cream and season with salt and pepper.
Auto Zone store manager Joseph Russell loves to cook daily feasts and fancy dinner parties for friends. He got his chops from his mother and working as a chef on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief line. 4 salmon filets (about 4 ounces each) Extra virgin olive oil 2 T fresh dill, or 1 T dry Salt and pepper to taste Dust salmon filets with salt and pepper and dill. Place in baking dish skin side down. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until flakey. Serve with Mango Tango Salsa. Mango Tango Salsa ½ papaya, diced ½ mango, diced ¼ c chopped scallion, green part only ¼ c diced red bell pepper 1 T finely diced fresh jalapeño pepper 1 T chopped fresh cilantro 1 small clove garlic, minced 1 T fresh lime juice ¼ t salt ½ t extra virgin olive oil Combine all ingredients and chill for at least one hour. Serve with baked salmon. Summer Sensation Cocktail
Let the cream reduce for 3-4 minutes, then add Cajun seasoning to your liking. Finally add the pasta and mix well, place in a medium bowl and serve. Serves four.
CORRECTION: In the May 2008 edition of Eat This, the photograph of chef Christopher Taube should have included a photo credit for Kevin C. Groen.
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1 shot vodka Prepared raspberry lemonade 1 Lemon wedge 2 Strawberries Fill a highball glass with ice. Pour in vodka and chill in freezer for a few minutes. Take out of freezer and fill glass with raspberry lemonade. Squeeze lemon wedge into drink and garnish with quartered strawberries on a swizzle stick.
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news + Views funny page drawing from memory
get your war on
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>>by dwellephant
>>by david rees
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Vital’s Picks >> By Erin Lee Petersen and lindsey huster
Updated all month long at VITALsourcemag.com
June Festivals June 3 – Chill on the Hill series kick-off Humboldt Park, Bay View June 6-8 – Pridefest Henry Maier Festival Park June 8 – Locust Street Days Locust Street June 20-22 – Lakefront Festival of the Arts Milwaukee Art Museum June 20-22 – Polish Fest Henry Maier Festival Park June 21 – Summer Soulstice Music Festival North Avenue, East Side June 26-July 6 – Summerfest Henry Maier Festival Park Ahh! You can practically hear the collective sigh of relief that falls over our fair city as each new summer rolls in, bringing more sunshine and good cheer than we know what to do with. And what better way to welcome the burgeoning days of summer bliss than to throw on your shorts and flip-flops and hit the streets? Break out your lawn chairs, blankets and pack yourself a picnic when you head to Humboldt Park in Bay View for the kickoff of the Chill on the Hill series, where local bands will serenade you every Tuesday night. Pridefest officially throws Milwaukee into festival mode on June 6, featuring the comedic stylings of Wanda Sykes, pop songstress Natasha Bedingfield and folk icons The Indigo Girls. Maybe you’re into something a little more low-key, something where you’ll find the words “family friendly” and “beer run” on the same ticket. Locust Street Days has that something for you dear friends! Billed as “the best in Riverwest,” this one-day festival celebrates with more than 20 bands, arts & crafts, capoeira performances, deliRide hard, there’s beer at the end! Miller Lite Ride for the Arts, June 1.
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cious food and all the booze you can handle. The annual Beer Run gets the party started at 11:30am. For a quick break from the party life, or at least enough time to make the room stop spinning, visit the Lakefront Festival of the Arts at the Milwaukee Art Museum for its 46th annual juried art festival. The grounds will be packed with over 170 artists exhibiting and selling their work, including fiber arts fashion, family-friendly activities, a sculpture garden and plenty of music and food. Across the street you’ll find Polish Fest in full swing. America’s largest Polish festival kicks off with its traditional 50-cent Friday, with admission for just four bits! While you’re there, grab a chrusciki and sidle up to the non-stop polka stage for a little squeezebox. On June 21, rock out at the annual Summer Soulstice Music Festival on the East Side, where ten sweet bands – including old Milwaukee favorites Local H – as well as games, fun, prizes and copious amounts of food and drink – all for free! Last but never least is Summerfest, the indomitable lakefront bash, back for the attack with an insane-o lineup that includes Stevie Wonder, Matisyahu, Alicia Keys & Stephen Marley, Coheed and Cambria, The Crystal Method, The Roots and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. We’re partial to the fireworks, the fried cheese curds, and the Miller products flowing like water. Welcome back, summer! Miller Lite Ride for the Arts June 1 – Marcus Center With the summer sun above your head, put your bike pedals to the metal and handle “bars” (get it?!) to the test with the Miller Lite Ride for the Arts. This is sure to be a rip-roarin’ good time (but we don’t advise biking under the influence for this one!). Now in its 28th year, the ride benefits the United Performing Arts Fund, and since its inception in 1981, over 230,000 participants have shown some loving for these beloved Lake Michigan shores and the arts organizations that keep the city vibrant. So show your support for the arts, Milwaukee and beer all in one swoop! Don’t miss the Potwatomi party after crossing the finish line. 414-276-7433 or millerliteride.com. Catherine Ryan and Eddie Villanueva June 2 – Paper Boat Gallery Birds of a feather flock together, especially when it comes to the two featured artists at the Paper Boat Gallery. UW-Milwaukee graduate Eddie Villanueva and Catherine Ryan join forces to show their playful, intricate and animal-populated artwork. You may know Villanueva’s work from the bathroom stalls of the Annona Bistro or his showing at the grand opening of the Armoury Gallery last month; Villanueva will also debut a permanent site-specific mural alongside his work in this show. Ryan is a San Francisco-based artist whose rich watercolors are featured in the first volume of the art book Down Bird Art Kingdom. Each artist brings a distinct take on the furies and feathers of the bird world; both appear to have found a happy nest at the Paper Boat for now. 414-483-8462 or paperboatboutique.com. Sonya Huber June 6/7 – Broad Vocabulary Expand your summer reading list (and, duh, your mind) with some friendly feminism courtesy of Broad Vocabulary. June readers get a special treat this month with a visit by acclaimed author, activist, and
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Bat a Go-Go June 13 – Luckystar Studio Luckystar Studio has just what you need to get the summer started. They’re kicking off the season with an “outrageously artificial and tastelessly showy” art party, featuring “inappropriate” art: stash books, shivs and men in tights! The one-night-only soiree encourages party goers to shake off the doldrums and more importantly, shake their butts. DJ Flavor Dav will be spinning the go-go and all those inclined to attend should dress to impress – we mean go-go boots, capes and colors bright enough to make ravers jealous. And guess what else? There’s no cover! 414-257-4640 or lsmfa.com.
Aimee Mann: still totally hot. June 13 @ The Pabst.
everything-in-between Sonya Huber. Huber will read from her newest book Opa Nobody, a pseudo-memoir and half-imagined tale that skillfully weaves the story of her mysterious anti-Nazi grandfather with her own parallel life as an activist. It’s a definite must-read (or musthear, in this case). 414-744-8384 or broadvocabulary.com. Milwaukee Community Sailing Center Open House June 7 – Milwaukee Community Sailing Center Ahoy all you land-lubbers! The Milwaukee Community Sailing Center, constantly striving to make Lake Michigan accessible to all Milwaukee residents, is plunging into summer with its annual open house. Staff will be on hand at the lakefront giving tours and demonstrations, plus everyone in attendance has the opportunity to get their sea legs with free sailboat rides all afternoon! You don’t have to own your own yacht to have fun at MCSC. Lessons are offered to the entire community regardless of age, background or financial status. 414-277-9094 or sailingcenter.org.
Aimee Mann June 13 – The Pabst Aimee Mann became widely popular after supplying her distinctive voice to the Magnolia soundtrack in 1999, leaving us all haunted – and somehow uplifted. But the veteran singer/songwriter has been in the business since the early 1980s, bringing her own brand of sweetness and melody to rock music before going solo in 1993. Mann has since created her own label, SuperEgo Records, and released six solo albums that explore despair, addiction and the eccentricity of human relationships. Now Aimee Mann is holding an intimate engagement at Milwaukee’s own Pabst Theater to promote Smilers, a album about life outside of the limelight. The album is a departure for Mann, whose earlier, more somber work featured strings, horns and Moog synthesizer. A stand-out among a great many wonderful concerts happening this month, you’ll want to save the date for this sure-to-be-spectacular event. 414-286-3663 or pabsttheater.com. continued on page 26
S/V Denis Sullivan Homecoming Celebration June 7 – Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin At press time, the S/V Denis Sullivan was in port in Cleveland, ready to chart a course across Lake Erie, through the Great Lakes Waterway and back to her home in Milwaukee. Every year the Sullivan – the world’s only recreation of a 19th-century Great Lakes schooner, and the first tall ship built in Wisconsin in more than 100 years – travels more than 18,000 nautical miles along the Eastern seaboard to southern Florida. It’s an incredible voyage, and the schooner is as unparalleled an educational resource as it is a lakefront landmark. So celebrate its return with a big party on the pier, featuring live music, family activities, an open house and deck tours of the ship. Bring a picnic and watch as the majestic watercraft cruises into the harbor. 414-765-8640 or discoveryworld.org The Milwaukee Highland Games June 7 – Old Heidelberg Park at The Bavarian Inn Gie it laldie! Translated into English, this traditional Scottish toast means party furiously, which is just what you can expect from the Milwaukee Highland Games. Held at beautiful Old Heidelberg Park along the Milwaukee River, this event has something for the entire family. Listen to some spectacular bagpipe bands, watch sheepdogs do what they do best and maybe even get outfitted for your very own kilt! Plus, there will be plenty of athletic events, vendors and all the haggis you can eat. As the evening winds down, grab your favorite guy or girl for a dance at the Ceilidh and maybe even a nip (or two) of scotch. This event is one day only, rain or shine! milwaukeescottishfest.com.
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(brightly-rendered images of male genitalia and bodily fluids) and unanswered questions (the AIDS epidemic, racism, homosexuality, hip-hop culture) in their art. “Brace yourself,” the Museum’s marketing materials warn, and it’s little wonder; this British invasion is sure to get the whole city talking this summer. 414-224-3200 or mam.org. Juneteenth Day June 19 – 3030 Martin Luther King Dr. It’s the equivalent of the Fourth of July for millions across the country, and many in the Milwaukee area – a day that celebrates the emancipation of slaves in 1865. Junteenth is not just a victory for African Americans, but for everyone who values freedom, independence, equality and selfdetermination. A parade in the morning starts the party, which continues throughout the day with live music, food, street performances and activities for the kids. The fact that last year’s celebration was marred by violence should give us all the more reason to come together in support of our communities and the vitality of our city. 414-372-3770. Gilbert and George know what makes you feel weird. June 14 @ MAM.
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Gilbert and George June 14 – Milwaukee Art Museum The “Godfathers of British Art” (or fairy godmothers, some say) are headed for Milwaukee this month. Gilbert and George are the peanut butter and jelly pair of contemporary British Art. Sculptors who met in college, they soon began collaborating as artists (and lovers, by rumor), creating colorful, large-scale photomontage works that depict raw human experience. Critics around the world have sung their praises, but in their 40 year career, the pair has continuously stirred up controversy as they portray banalities
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UWM Dance Department presents: Triptych June 20, 21, 27, 28 – Kenilworth Square East Visual art, dance and music coalesce with Triptych, a collaborative project from UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts that explores the coexistence of real and imaginary spaces, both on canvas and on the stage. The brainchild of choreographer Luc Vanier, visual artist Leslie Vansen and composer Christopher Burns, this three-part performance serves as a sort of window to the audience, one that reveals to them a world that is sincere, but not necessarily authentic. Though part of a single ensemble, each piece of Triptych will inhabit its own distinct space as both performance and exhibition, adding layers to the intriguing multi-media concept. 414-229-4308 or uwm.edu/psoa.
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music reviews Vital culture Abigail Washburn • Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet • Nettwerk • abigailwashburn.com When one thinks of bluegrass and old-time mountain music, the mountain range that typically comes to mind is the Appalachians. Abigail Washburn, though, doesn’t care much to stay planted in Bluegrass’s accepted Olympia. Instead, she creates a musical Pangaea, merging the Appalachians with the Qinling or Wudang Mountains of China. Washburn, an experienced claw-hammer banjo player schooled in the classical style of bluegrass, has effortlessly morphed her musical training with another interest: the language and culture of China. A visit as a freshman in college introduced Washburn to a world full of challenges, stories and uncovered beauty. Fascinated, she devoted her time to learning about Chinese culture and the Mandarin language. A newbie to bluegrass at the time, she decided ‘for kicks’ to translate a Gillian Welch song into Mandarin. A recording fell into the right hands, and the rest fell into place. With bandmates Béla Fleck (who also produced her new album), Ben Sollee and Casey Driessen, Abigail and her Sparrow Quartet combine resonant Americana tones with tales told in Mandarin and English to form a baffling study of what you might call ‘globalization.’ “What I am trying to do is capture what it is like to be caught between two cultures … it’s like being a bridge,” said Washburn in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet is a lively showcase of each musician’s incomparable talent, as well as Washburn’s great voice, as engaging in her natural alto as in her falsetto soprano. Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet is definitively atypical – a promise, perhaps, not only of the vitality of American musical history, but of a new chapter in a dynamic book of stories told in many languages across the globe. – Erin Wolf Skybombers • Take Me to Town Albert Productions • albertmusic.com What is it about Australian hard rock bands and aviation references? The Screaming Jets in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s? Jet (the non-screaming kind, apparently) in the aughts? Now Melbourne’s Skybombers, a band of freshfaced recent high school grads, are playing a brand of hard-edged power-pop on their debut full-length, Take Me to Town. The sound is what you might expect from kids their age — tight and well-executed, but with an unsurprising lack of a unique and singular voice, betraying their youthful inexperience.
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Make no mistake: they’re hitting the right touchstones — a sprinkle of The Who here, a liberal dash of Cheap Trick there — and the performances are solid. Producer Rick Parker (Von Bondies, Dandy Warhols) has done a heck of a job polishing these guys into a welloiled, no-frills garage-pop steam engine. The opening-chord gut punch of “On + On” is an attention-grabber, and the instant hooks provided in, well, just about every song hold onto that attention with the stubbornness of a clamped-down pit bull (or, to make that simile more Australian, a dingo chomping on the baby it’s stealing). Still, the album rocks less in an “ohmigod they sound like Cheap Trick!” way and more in an “if I want to listen to Cheap Trick, I’ll listen to Cheap Trick” way. Give these kids a few more years, a few more tours and a few more records in their collection, and they could become a blisteringly original act. For now, though, they remain catchy, solid, fun, and downright forgettable. You’ll hum along during the first spin, but five minutes later you’ll be reaching for your copy of In Color. – DJ
Hostettler
The Long Blondes • “Couples” Rough Trade • thelongblondes.co.uk If Kate Jackson, vocalist and co-songwriter for the Long Blondes, were really the “glamourous punk” she proclaims herself to be, she’d understand that it takes time before an “out” trend can become “in” again. Still, her Sheffield, England-based five-piece insists on reconstituting what Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party did better just a few years ago. Angular post-punk guitars and new-wave synth are go-to on their sophomore release, but Jackson’s voice puts a unique stamp on the boys’-club genre. Her whimper is solid, backed by snarls from bassist Reenie Hollis and keyboardist Emma Chaplin on tracks like “Here Comes the Serious Bit,” a vivacious romp about emotionally listless hookups. But when something more exact is required (“Nostalgia,” “Century”), she wavers. The undeterred Jackson continues to challenge her larynx’s limits on drag-racing, trash can stomp “Round the Hairpin,” but in this instance, risk pays off and compliments the song’s reckless overtones. Driving the album’s relationship concept home, songs about slipups in fidelity and perpetually being the third wheel – “Guilt” and “The Couples,” respectively – possess peak pop danceability. Though the Blondes pointedly avoid the autobiographical in their songwriting, taking on perspectives from country bumpkin to jet-setter, they must get out of their heads and be less procedural. The Blondes think they’re clever, they think they’re smart, but they’re “just too clever by half,” says the song titled by those lyrics. Fashion lesson number two for Miz Jackson: the coolest girl in the room is always the most effortless. – A.L. Herzog continued on page 28
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Vital culture music reviews continued from page 27
My Morning Jacket • Evil Urges ATO Records • mymorningjacket.com For all intents and (media) purposes, My Morning Jacket is at the crucial fulcrum of their career. Thanks to a catalog consistent in its evolution, they have cred galore (from the critics to the punters) and are revered as one of the best live acts today. So it’s vital that Evil Urges, their fifth studio full-length, cements their status as a true American musical treasure and catapults them into the upper strata. Jim James throws down no less than four different voices in 14 tracks. His falsetto is right on in the saccharine groove of opener “Evil Urges” and the tight, lean funk of “Highly Suspicious.” He handles the country psychedelia of “I’m Amazed” and “Thank You Too” smoothly, and he gets loud and playful on the rockers “Aluminum Park” and “Remnants.” And perhaps most gloriously, Jim evokes Nashville Skyline-era Dylan on the ascending, poignant and goddamn incredible “Librarian.” His performance throughout is simply masterful. The melodies are steeped in soul, with a nice measure of rock and roll. Lest we forget the band: the arrangements and production create the essential atmosphere for Jim to fly. Each instrument, though easily recognizable, slices and bends the air with an array of tones and rhythms that are fresh and that refresh. This recording comes at a perfect time for the rock community. It’s something all of us can put our arms around – and never let go. – Troy Butero
The truth is this: the record sounds like an amateur version of Dinosaur Jr. guitar-railing that’s obliviously influenced by the typical metal suspects: Black Sabbath, Deep Purple – you know where I’m going with this. That is not to say that Yonatan Gat’s guitar lines are boring; they’re just expected. It’s pretty much the same with Ran Shimoni’s drums. The vocals are inflected but flat, and Ami Shalev’s Middle-Eastern accent will only draw comparisons to Serge Tankian of System of a Down. It’s like they’re trying to do the Boris thing and reinvent 70’s rock through reinterpretation, but somewhere along the line Monotonix just gets it wrong. Maybe the songs are too slow, maybe it’s hard to make two instruments sound as huge as a full band, or maybe the 23-minute record is just too short, but Body Language doesn’t stand up. The record sounds amateur and under-thought, and there are a lot of records out there that do what Monotonix is trying to do much better. So instead, go see them live. I hear that they light their drums on fire. That’s pretty awesome. – Charlie Hosale
Monotonix • Body Language Drag City • monotonix.com If you believe the rumors, M onot oni x is a li v e music experience unlike any other: pyrotechnics, swapped instruments, solos performed in flight, all from an Israeli band that’s been on tour for two years and refuses to go home. But I’ve never actually seen Monotonix – so without an awesome show in the back of my head, how does their debut record, Body Language on Chicago’s Drag City, stand alone as an audio experience?
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record releases Vital culture
>> by erin wolf
June 3 The Accidental There Were Wolves Thrill Jockey Ashanti The Declaration The Inc.
Gavin Rossdale WANDERlust Interscope
June 10 Adele 19 XL/Columbia
Wolf Parade Kissing the Beehive Sub Pop
Cherry Poppin’ Daddies Susquehanna Space Age Bachelor
Supergrass Diamond Hoo Ha Astralwerks
Jakob Dylan Seeing Things Columbia Emmylou Harris All I Intended to Be Nonesuch Joan As Police Woman To Survive Reveal/Cheap Lullaby Kerli Love Is Dead Island Def Jam
Oppenheimer Take the Whole Midrange and Boost It Bar/None
Lil Wayne Tha Carter III Cash Money
Sam Phillips Don’t Do Anything Nonesuch
Sergio Mendes Enchanto Concord
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Alejandro Escovedo Real Animal Back Porch/ EMI Manhattan
Robert Pollard Robert Pollard Is Off to Business Guided By Voices, Inc.
Ed Harcourt The Beautiful Lie Dovecote
Opeth Watershed Roadrunner
Ken Navarro The Grace of Summer Light Positive Music
The Charlatans You Cross My Path Cooking Vinyl USA
Disturbed Indestructible Reprise
Aimee Mann Smilers SuperEgo
Ry Cooder I, Flathead Nonesuch
The Offspring Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace Columbia
The Bridges Limits of the Sky Verve Forecast
Jesse Malin Mercury Retrograde Adeline
Alanis Morissette Flavors of Entanglement Maverick/Reprise
Judas Priest Nostradamus Epic
My Morning Jacket Evil Urges ATO/RCA
Baskervilles Twilight Secret Crush
Jewel Perfectly Clear Big Machine
Montgomery Gentry Back When I Knew It All Columbia Nashville
Martha Wainwright I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too Zoë/Rounder
June 24
Ne-Yo Year of the Gentleman Def Jam People in Planes Beyond the Horizon Wind-up
Less Than Jake GNV FLA Sleep It Off
The Watson Twins Fire Songs Vanguard
Edwin McCain Nobody’s Fault But Mine Saguaro Road/Time Lie
Weezer Weezer (Red Album) Geffen
Gerald Albright Sax for Stax Peak
Mötley Crüe Saints of Los Angeles Motley
Keith Anderson C’mon Columbia Nashville
Nelly Brass Knuckles Universal
Cassandra Wilson Loverly Blue Note
June 17 Coldplay Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends Capitol Jason Falkner Bedtime with the Beatles, Part Two Adrenaline
Vital Source | june record releases | 29
wild >> words by matt
Green Bay godfathers and hockey-playing chimps A closer look at Wisconsin’s film future
as a discerning moviegoer, no film has filled me kind of low-rent Gus Van Sant – the awkward with such seething contempt for humanity, and “Hey! This takes place in Wisconsin!” moments y now, you’ve probably heard how Wiscon- yes, I’ve seen Garden State. When an appear- are handled with all the subtlety of a stomach sin is destined to become the next great ance by Mark Borchardt is the least offensive pump: a few forced mentions of fish fries here, film capital of the world, which it isn’t, thing about a movie, you know you’re in for a some prominently displayed cases of PBR there. and how everyone from the Coen brothers to the nightmare. Put lightly, GOGB is one of the worst MVP, on the other hand, is about a hockey-playing rotting, re-animated corpse of D.W. Griffith will movies ever made. Air Bud, on the other hand, monkey. Let that sink in for a moment: a hockeybe falling all over themselves just for the privi- was kind of fun. playing monkey. lege of filming here, which they won’t. The truth The list of cinematic crimes GOGB commits Actually, Milwaukee, Minnesota wasn’t all that is this: the recently passed Film Wisconsin tax is unforgivable: one, it’s about stand-up comics; bad. The plot involves a “special” ice-fisherman incentive bill will have a long-lasting, detrimental two, its insights into Wisconsin go no deeper who becomes the object of interest to an evereffect that will further tarnish our already-sketchy than “ya der hey” accents and frequent men- growing number of con men and women. I was national reputation (and in a state that’s produced tions of how the Bears, like, totally suck. The plot a little lost (and bored) after the fifth or sixth both Jeffrey Dahmer and the TMJ4 “Dirty Dining” involves writer/director/star Schwaba – whose double-cross, though playing “Spot the Bay View team, that’s saying a lot). performance could give a piece of wet cardboard Bar!” (Club Garibaldi! The Palomino!) proved a Before I go any further, I should make it pera run for its money – heading to Wisconsin for a good distraction. With ringers like Bruce Dern fectly clear that I’m not setting out to trash our Tonight Show audition, and falling in love with a and Randy Quaid in supporting roles, the acting many talented local filmmakers or ridicule the clearly embarrassed Lauren Holly in the process. is solid throughout, though Troy Garity’s lead turn vibrant scene they’ve nurtured over the years. Oh, and there’s some sort of crime kingpin with as Albert suggests his research of the mentally No, I’m here to warn against the legions of out-of- a mullet. Who loves the Packers. And hates the challenged extended no further than renting The state filmmakers this tax break will attract, and Bears. Ha ha. The fact that Wisconsinites were Waterboy. the endless number of awful, awful movies they actually entertained by this poorly made, shame- For a movie about – once again – a hockeywill almost certainly make in – and about – Wis- lessly pandering barrel-scraper (it inexplicably playing monkey, MVP was kind of a letdown. consin. Sure, a flick or two about Dillinger is fine won some award or other at the 2005 Milwaukee Maybe it was the way the titular primate looked for now, but let’s see how we feel after the ump- International Film Festival) is clearly a final sign decidedly uncomfortable in full hockey gear, or maybe it was the fact that the dirty ape didn’t teenth “Aren’t those backwater Midwesterners of the apocalypse. just so darn quirky!” movie comes down the pipe. Seventh Inning Fetch, on the other hand, hit the ice until an hour in, but watching this Trust me; it’ll make the Bronze Fonz seem like a commits none of these crimes. Eschewing any would-be-masterpiece was more taxing than goddamned Frank Gehry concert hall. references to blaze orange or “T-zone” hunting, entertaining. I fast-forwarded through most of To illustrate this further, I recently immersed it follows a time-tested dramatic formula that’s it, making Milwaukee, Minnesota the winner myself in two different types of films in order to been around since Shakespeare: girl’s best friend by default. find out which was more unwatchable: movies joins junior high baseball team, best friend gets So what did I learn? Only this: tying up your made in and about Wisconsin, or movies about hurt, girl takes her place but sucks, girl’s golden Netflix queue with movies about dogs that play animals playing sports. My findings proved to retriever joins the team and starts batting a .347. first base can drive an otherwise perfectly be embarrassing, infuriating, and in at least two Clearly, Air Bud is the more watchable of the sane girlfriend batshit-nuts. As for Milwaucases, downright adorable. So, if you, dear reader, two, especially if you happen to be 12 years old kee’s future as a “Midwest Hollywood,” well, have any interest in protecting the image of our and/or stoned. if a movie about a hockey-playing monkey can fair state, read on, and take heed. spawn a sequel (look for my review of MXP: MILWAUKEE, MINNESOTA (2003, d. Allan Most X-treme Primate next month!), anything THE GODFATHER OF GREEN BAY (2005, d. Mindel) vs. MVP: MOST VALUABLE PRI- is possible. VS Pete Schwaba) vs. AIR BUD: SEVENTH MATE (2001, d. Robert Vince) INNING FETCH (2002, d. Robert Vince) Matt Wild really is excited about that tax incentive On the surface, Milwaukee, Minnesota looks horri- thing. Really. The Godfather of Green Bay is a horrible, horrible ble: ice fishing, a mentally challenged protagonist, movie. I mean, it’s really horrible. In all my years more blaze orange. Directed by Allan Mindel – a
B
30 | subversions | Vital Source
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puzzle page Vital source CryptoQuip The CryptoQuip below is a quote in substitution code, where A could equal R, H could equal P, etc. One way to break the code is to look for repeated letters. E, T, A, O, N and I are the most often used letters. A single letter is usually A or I; OF, IS and IT are common 2-letter words; and THE and AND are common 3-letter words. Good luck!
Clues: K = A G = R
Crossword
Across 1 Parting words 5 Allows 9 Seize suddenly 13 Mouth off 14 Shoshones 15 Tricks 17 Martians, maybe? 19 Bury 20 Catchall abbr. 21 Lubricates 22 Feudal workers 23 Giant planet 25 Thomas Crown actress Rene 27 Badgers 29 Conceit 30 Forty winks 33 Luau souvenirs 35 Hymn 37 High card 38 Words 39 Muppet Miss 40 Mountain lion 41 Business abbr. 42 Military clique 43 Speck 44 Greek letter 45 Yorkshire river 46 Seagoing (Abbr.)
Sudoku
puzzles
To solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and box must contain the numbers 1-9.
48 Trots 50 7th planet from the sun 54 Cover story? 56 Forum wear 58 Dined 59 Lhasa’s land 60 Orbit inhabitant 62 Entertain 63 Arab chieftain 64 Affirm 65 ____ Rabbit 66 Hardy heroine 67 Work force inits. Down 1 Scot. hillsides 2 WW II conference site 3 Boot out 4 Behold 5 Enticing 6 And others (Abbr.) 7 Gumshoes, for short 8 Compass pt. 9 One of 11 down 10 Ancient Germanic letters 11 Spaceman 12 Dinner choice
16 AARP members, for short 18 Novelist Ephron and character Chartles 24 Building block 25 40th President 26 Hideous 28 Quills 31 Pinnacle 32 Soup type 33 Holy season 34 King Arthur’s sword 36 Army NCO 38 Dead heat 39 Unadulterated 40 Falafel bread 42 Largest planet 43 Piece of cave art 47 Plumber’s snakes 49 Corpulent 51 Gullible 52 Absolute 53 Prophets 54 One ____ time 55 Arm or leg 56 Gentle 57 Elevator inventor 60 Gel 61 Race unit
may Crossword Answers
Vital Source | puzzle page | 31