Vol VII • Issue 10 • November 2008
inside vital
November 2008 | vol. 7 issue 10
100% LOCAL MUSIC ISSUE 6 CROSSOVER APPEAL
Creative collaborations make the music better
>> by DJ Hostettler + Erin Wolf + Amy Elliott
10 POPULAR MECHANICS WMSE’s one and only Billy Cicerelli
>> by Erin Wolf
6
14 UNDER 500
Making music videos on the cheap
>> by Brian Whitney
26 VITAL’S PICKS
22 INTIMATE: A SORT-OF VENUE GUIDE
>> By Erin Petersen + Judith Ann Moriarty
12
Where VITAL will be in November
>> by Nick Schurk
30 SLIGHTLY CRUNCHY PARENT
INSIDE
The Fifth Grade Blues
>> By Lucky Tomaszek
4 THE EDITOR’S DESK >> By Jon Anne Willow
31 EAT THIS More than green beans
>> By Catherine McGarry Miller
17 REEL MILWAUKEE Amazing music-in-film moments
32 STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND
>> By Howie Goldklang
Act/React at the Milwaukee Art Museum
>> By Judith Ann Moriarty
17 VITAL CINEMA Song Sung Blue
>> By Eric Lewin 20 STAGES War, peace and art
34
MUSIC REVIEWS
36
RECORD RELEASES
THIS MONTH’S COVER ARTIST
Aaron Spransy is a Milwaukee born and bred designer, musician, artist and iced latte enthusiast. You may have seen him in Those Royals or Sleep Tight Co. Aaron makes a living building ads that annoy people when all they want is the news, and he’s not afraid to admit that he likes a good Bryan Adams song here and there. canarycoalmine.com
37 THE FUNNY PAGE
>> By Ryan Findley 24 BEHIND THE SCAFFOLDING From sausages to mansions and the mayor’s pajama party
>> By Dan Corcoran
@ VITALSOURCEMAG.COM
38 SUBVERSIONS >> By Matt Wild 39 PUZZLES Plus October crossword answers
22
New stuff every day! Blogs, videos, features, reviews, comprehensive arts and gallery guides, local events, weather, news headlines, and more..
Elvis Presley Mehrdad Dalamie mjdalamie@vitalsourcemag.com
Amy Ray Lucky Tomaszek ltomaszek@vitalsourcemag.com
Elvis Costello Nick Schurk webtwopointoh@vitalsourcemag.com
Marc Bolan Jon Anne Willow jwillow@vitalsourcemag.com
John Linnell Matt Wild subversions@vitalsourcemag.com
Joan Jett Ryan Findley rfindley@vitalsourcemag.com
Chrissie Hynde Cate Miller eatthis@vitalsourcemag.com
Ric Ocasek Amy Elliott aelliott@vitalsourcemag.com
Lemmy Kilmister Howie Goldklang reelmilwaukee@vitalsourcemag.com
The Band Lynn Allen, Kat Berger, Troy Butero, Dan Corcoran, Dwellephant, Howie Goldklang, Jason Groschopf, Amber L. Herzog, Erin Landry, Eric Lewin, Koffeebot, Judith Ann Moriarty, David Rees, David Schrubbe, Brian Whitney, Erin Wolf
Paul Vash as David Bowie Bridget Brave bbrave@vitalsourcemag.com
Slash Erin Lee Petersen calendar@vitalsourcemag.com
Mark Mothersbaugh DJ Hostettler
Axl Rose Zach Bartel
John Entwistle Pete Hammill music@vitalsourcemag.com
Hanson Noah Therrien vitalvideos@gmail.com
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Vital source The editor’s desk We’re all in this together Occasionally I find myself in the awkward position of having to file this column in the figurative hours just before a momentous event. This time, of course, it’s the race between Barack Obama and John McCain for the presidency. I could have gone ahead and predicted the ’04 elections and written from that perspective, and I think I can predict this one. But in this sense, I’m not much of a risk-taker. So if you’re reading this after November 4, understand that this was written in October and check this space in December, where I might share some thoughts on the election. Then again, I might be as weary of the whole thing as you, ready to move on and just see what comes next. On second thought, I’m pretty sure I’ll be all done thinking about the election by December, so I won’t bore any of us with ruminating further on the implications of its outcome – you hereby have my solemn promise on that. But I can’t guarantee that I won’t still be thinking about the mess we’re in and how we’re going to get out of it. Barring the end of the world, I believe we can recover from this, even if the global power structure shifts dramatically. We may not come out on top of the superpower dog pile in the end, but either way it’s going to take a few years before we can tell how things are going to shake out. And whatever form the new world order takes, it, too, will be impermanent. Just ask the Macedonians. For years I’ve been obsessing over the now-arrived (and amazingly predictable) financial market collapse. I’ve been writing about our dangerously over-valued economy since 2003 and moved my money (what little there is of it) to CDs and long-term growth funds in 2006. I’ve only ever borrowed $500 against my house (to help pay for new gutters) and I drive a 1996 Corolla that’s been paid off for ten years and gets 35 mpg in town. I don’t have cable and my kids don’t freak out about hand-medowns. Sure, my business could go belly-up in 2009 (though things look stable right now), but if it does, we had a good run and I’m probably qualified for some sort of job that will keep food on the table and a roof over our heads should VITAL’s little house of cards be blown away by the winds of changing fortune. Am I pessimistic? Absolutely not, in part because in my studies, I’ve learned at least one thing: nobody is invulnerable. A recent decline in demand for Chinese steel, coupled with stagnant or falling fossil fuel consumption in many developed countries, has driven oil prices down to less than $100 per barrel (at this writing). OPEC responded recently by signaling it would cut production to stabilize prices, but Saudi Arabia, the world’s single largest oil producer, broke ranks and declared it would continue with plans to increase production, partly to help stabilize the world economy. With major ownership stakes in numerous foreign economies – including ours – it’s in their best interest to keep the lid on the pot. (China and Japan probably feel the same way – those countries own 31% and 19% of our treasury debt, respectively.)
>>by jon anne willow
time than originally predicted before we figure out how to make our cars run on little to no oil. So maybe the Saudis are simply clever – planning to sell as many barrels as possible now, use the proceeds to buy larger shares of developed economies and then sit back and reap the benefits in the decades to come. I hope that works out for them. Meanwhile, back here in the neighborhood, I still see community-building as our best course of action in effecting long-term change. We can’t individually control the value of our homes, nationalized bank ownership or whether the U.S. will negotiate a treaty with the Taliban in Afghanistan. But we can feed hungry people, give kids a reason to stay off the streets and gradually rebuild communities decimated by years of criminal neglect. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but thousands of people right here in Milwaukee have been working tirelessly towards this already. Many of them are volunteers who give their time and energy without the need for gratification or glory, or sometimes even much hope. It just goes to show that leadership is not political, it’s personal. We at VITAL believe that without these fearless leaders things would be much worse than they are. Last month we asked you, our readers, to nominate people you know who are doing great work. In November, we ask you to visit our website (vitalsourcemag.com) and vote for the leaders you think best embody the values of our amazing community. [See the announcement on page 18 for details] We will honor them in January, dedicating the issue to their work and holding a celebratory event. We will also make charitable donations to the causes of their choice, through the generosity of local sponsors. It’s the least we can do. VS One last thought: “If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation, and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property, until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power of money should be taken from banks and restored to Congress and the people to whom it belongs. I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money, are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies.”—Thomas Jefferson
Are the Saudis being generous? Do they feel obligated, in their powerful position, to act as stewards of global financial health? Or do they see the writing on the wall? In an October 2008 report issued by U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), electricity generated by wind power increased 81.6% from June 2007 to June 2008, while solar and hydropower grew by 42.6% and 34.7% respectively. If we can just put a bullet in the hydrogen car once and for all and move on, it might be less
4 | editor ’s Desk | Vital Source | news+views
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Vital Source | 5
Creative collaborations make the music better No musician is an island, and in the music biz, it’s all about who you know, whether you’re a mainstream corporate unit-mover or a DIY street punk. Even the rare musician who does it all – writing, designing, photographing, recording, mixing, mastering, promoting, booking and fixing – needs to collaborate to stay fresh (and sane). And in Milwaukee, “it’s who you know” tends to take on an egalitarian, community-based context. You can have the songs, the chops and the style, but what do you do when you need band photos – and everyone needs to be in front of the camera? We caught up with four local musicians and the local artists, photographers, technicians and production teams that help them get the job done to discuss their working relationships and the friendships they’ve formed. We may not have built this city on rock and roll, but in the end, it’s all about the love. Jeff Benske + Quinn Scharber @ Top Shelf
The mechanics of instrumental romance “I’ve screwed up my guitars plenty of times,” says Quinn Scharber, head of Milwaukee four-piece Quinn Scharber and The … “I can specifically recall winding my strings backwards on the tuning pegs multiple times in my younger days.” Quinn started playing on his brother’s cheap electric guitar, then got an acoustic, which he still uses, when he was sixteen. “I’m glad I started on electric, because all I really wanted to play at that time was ‘Whole Lotta Love’ by Led Zeppelin, and that song is pretty hard to rock on an acoustic guitar.” ‘Rocking’ a guitar can take its toll. Constant strummings, pickings, tunings, jolts, cable ins and outs, amp fry-age and normal bumps and bruises require maintenance and repairs. Scharber’s first experiences in instrument mechanics came up short. “I think the first time I had work done on my guitar was when I was in college and I needed the electronics replaced on it … They charged me a lot and I had to take it back in two times to get it done right,” he recalls. Scharber soon started to shop around, and found a trusty and skilled ‘guitar mechanic’ in Jeff Benske of Top Shelf Guitar Shop in Bay View. “I just stopped in there one day about five or six years ago with [bandmate] Thom Geibel when we were having a ‘let’s go check out some guitars’ day. I’ve pretty much been hanging around Jeff’s shop and pestering him with questions ever since.” Says Benske of his first impression of Scharber, “He started off buying the usual parts and then came in with some non-standard projects … some custom stuff,” he said. Quinn’s whip, a tricked-out Epiphone Casino, hasn’t changed over the years. “We’ve done the electronics in it, and it’s set up just the way he wants it.”
Scharber appreciates the work that Benske has done with his Epiphone. “I take my guitars to Jeff because he’ll do it right the first time, and he can usually get it done in a short amount of time. If my gear is properly working before a show, it’s one less thing I have to worry about.”
6 crossover appeal | Vital Source | The music issue
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Benske says, “Quinn’s usually pretty on top of things … he’s always got a backup plan.” Adds Scharber, “Jeff isn’t the type of store owner who’s going to try to sell you crap you don’t need or make repairs that aren’t necessary. And he’s dependable. He’ll also point you [toward] someone who can get the work done if it’s not exactly what he specializes in, rather than risking something. I have a lot of trust and respect in Jeff and his shop, and I think that’s the most important thing when turning your instrument over to someone else.”
Sound and vision in the eye of the beholder A bad promo photo isn’t always a deal-breaker when it comes to a musician’s success, but it sure can’t hurt to have one that’s good. That’s what The Celebrated Workingman had in mind as they sought out photography to promote their new album, Herald The Dickens. Lead singer/guitarist Mark Waldoch says, “It’s surprising how often bad photos go hand-inhand with a bad band. I worked [at Atomic Records] for so long and saw some real doozies. “I don’t believe that a photo ‘makes or breaks’ Photographer Jen Bastian a band. Bad music does. I read an interview with Steve Albini once, and he said, ‘A band has a responsibility to know when they’re just bad.’ … If they can’t figure that out, most likely their photo and artwork has a good chance of being horrendous. Most bands just look milquetoast from their band pics to critics and reviewers, anyway.” Luckily for The Celebrated Workingman, they have the chops to stand up to the recent photos that local photographer Jennifer Bastian snapped. Mark says, “Our record label owner, Brian Kirk, introduced us, and she pulled it together on a moments’ notice. Spectacular!” Bastian, who has been photographing since she was 11 years old, when she had “this little purple 110 camera with a mint green button to trip the shutter,” had only recently begun to shoot for musicians. “I had done some photographs for Quinn Scharber, whose band I’ve shot before during a couple of shows as well. I’m sure [I took] some terrible high school photos of friends’ bands at some point, but I do think photographing The Celebrated Workingman was my first experience photographing a band I knew very little about.” Waldoch adds, “We wanted simply to get it done. We had no money – Jen was paid in Maker’s Mark, I believe – and we needed it to be the best it could, and it is! In the beginning, we brainstormed doing [a photo shoot] in a courtroom or taking pictures of only our feet, but really, we just wanted a new photo of us, being us. That’s the best we hoped for. Nothing convoluted or too staged in appearance.” Going into the shoot, Bastian wasn’t very familiar with the band’s music, but she knew Mark – and she knew she’d be able to play with whatever came along.
Quinn + Jeff @ the shop
“I rarely do any thorough research about subjects. I want to meet them as people and imagine what they need from me, figure out what will show who they are without any frills. I suppose this is a form of ‘winging it’, but it’s also a method of looking for the most honest exchange possible between photographer and subject. “[I think] about things from the point of view of musicians and consumers of music, because in a sense you are attempting to capture and show the persona or image of the band. This isn’t something I have to think about regularly, so it’s a totally fascinating challenge.” From the look of her work, she’s up for it.
Where art meets craft The tried and true method of show promotion (besides word of mouth, of course) is the show flier. In bold black and white or color, adorned with the usual suspects – band(s), venue, date and time – they’re dually regarded as valuable carriers of crucial information and works of art on a pint-sized canvas. Employing both original artwork and lifted images, the show flier also serves as a documentation of a certain band, genre or era. Milwaukee graphic artist Brian Kriederman’s fascination with this art form dovetails with his interest in
Cont’d on pg. 8 >> Jen Bastian’s photo of CWM
the music issue | Vital Source |crossover appeal | 7
Fres and the team of Invisibleman.
Brian Kriderman (left) with Disguised as Birds
music. “The first album cover that really caught my eye was Sunny Day Real Day Real Estate’s album Diary,” he remembers. Kriederman’s been tacking his self-created fliers at local venues ever since he started delving into the art form.
“One of my grandpa’s hobbies was painting, and I remember sitting at his basement workbench when I was probably six or seven, drawing or tracing birds or whatever, while he sat at his easel painting still lifes of fruit baskets, flowers and landscapes.” Kriederman sketched throughout his adolescence and took his burgeoning interest in art with him to college. “I got really into pastels for a while, but a lot of traditional art methods went out the window once I bought a computer and got a pirated version of Photoshop from a friend. I guess you could say that it opened up a door or two for me.” Local band Disguised as Birds had the good fortune to pique Kriederman’s interest in 2005. The result? A portfolio of visually arresting fliers for their shows, no asking involved. “Riddle Of Steel [out of St. Louis] was supposed to play a show at The Cactus Club with Disguised As Birds, but Cactus Club fell through as a venue at the last minute and the show moved to a basement in Riverwest,” Kriederman explains. “I didn’t know anything about Disguised as Birds at the time … but I was a huge fan of Riddle of Steel and felt the show needed some promotion because I wanted there to be a good turnout. I’m pretty sure I made the poster in a few hours and sent it off to [Birds drummer Kevin] DeMars to be printed and hung around town two or three days before the show. After seeing and hearing them for the first time that night, it turned out that I liked the Birds quite a bit, and the collaboration on posters and artwork sort of Brian Kriederman’s first show poster for the Birds went from there.” DeMars points out, “That’s the beauty of the whole thing …we don’t even have to ask. There’ll just be a flier
8 | the music issue | Vital Source | crossover appeal
already made. We’re kinda spoiled.” Kris Endicott, guitarist and vocalist adds, “Yeah, Brian, you’re in for life! The first poster that Brian did for us? It was such an awesome show.” Kriederman says, “I try to put the year on posters, because I’ll look at them, and think ‘What year was that?’” “Even if the show was bad, at least you have a beautiful document of a wretched night,” Endicott says. “I’d work with anyone, provided that their music or art is something that I can get behind and really enjoy, and that they aren’t pretentious about themselves or taking things too seriously. If I can’t sit down and comfortably have a few beers and goof around with a band, I probably wouldn’t want to work with them, you know?” Kriederman says. He’s already collaborated with the Birds on fliers and the artwork for their recent album Seeds, and has worked or is working with Hoss, The Customary Silence and Year of the Scavenger. Kriederman’s bright and bold designs reflect the work of other artists he admires such as Jason Farrell and Andy Mueller, who make band art for everyone from Bluetip to Fugazi to Jimmy Eat World and Hum. It’s obvious that Kriederman appreciates both art and music and is enjoying this collaboration to the utmost. “I don’t do it to get paid. I do it for the fun and to escape my day job. I know that everyone that’s in a band is not rolling in money.”
The beat goes on When Fres Thao hired Darryl Rheams to be his assistant manager at a retail auto parts store last year, he got way more than he bargained for. “I didn’t picture him to be a music man,” Fres says, “but on his truck he had his logo stenciled on his back window.” Fres told Darryl that he was an actively performing and promoting hip-hop musician with a full-length album already under his belt. Darryl, a producer and the “Invisibleman” of Invisibleman Music, gave Fres a few demos to check out. “I was not feeling what he had produced,” says Fres. “His projects were a bit too on the ‘street’ side of hip-hop to me, but he insisted I meet with the rest of the crew to feel them out.” “Fres wanted to take his hand out of producing so that he could put all of his energy into writing,” says Diallo Burks, who heads up the Beats Abound production core for Invisibleman, “and we needed an artist who was doing shows to get our music out there.” Fres remained skeptical – until Diallo threw down some beats. They’ve been working together ever since. Now, Fres, the Invisibleman team and filmmaker Jason Morgan of 37th & Burleigh Productions work together to bring socially conscious, funk- and rock-infused rap and hip-hop to the city.
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“We’ve formed an understanding of what kind of sound we want to bring to Milwaukee’s hip-hop scene,” says Fres, a firstgeneration Hmong American who’s worked with a number of out-of-town producers. He finds that working face-to-face with a local company provides more control, better opportunities for organic composition and beginning-toend fine-tuning. “With Invisibleman Music, we actually can sit together and tweak and tweak and tweak until we find something we can all agree on,” he says. “Most tracks are started from scratch now,” instead of with pre-arranged beats, and with Darryl on the piano and Diallo on percussion, every song can be custom-built from the bottom up. The ultimate result of their collaboration is a dynamic fusion of creative minds and a final product that gives everyone traction in their pursuits. “I make films,” says Jason Morgan. “Films need scores and soundtracks. Musicians need videos.” Jason has made music videos and promotional films for Fres, and several of Fres’s songs have appeared in Jason’s films, including Blood, Sweat and Tears, a documentary about the CIA’s exploitation of the Hmong in Laos during the Vietnam war. Jason and Fres are working on a music-intensive anti-gang film with a score by Invisibleman and Beats Abound, as well as a few shorter music video projects. Meanwhile, the Invisibleman team is working on another Fres full-length, and Fres is self-producing a re-release of some older material, adding a few freshly cut tracks. Everyone is trying to increase their presence on the web and around town. And at the end of the day, everyone
Invisibleman’s gear
is working hard, independently and collaboratively, at what they love. “Fres raps whether we’re involved or not,” says Jason. “The power is in coming together, focusing our talents on projects that showcase all of our skills, and building something.” VS
the music issue | Vital Source | crossover appeal | 9
POPULAR MECHANIC Billy Cicerelli powers the engine of WMSE’s live sound >>By Erin Wolf + Photos by Kat Berger Receptiveness is a valuable quality in audio recording equipment – and an important trait in the person pushing the buttons. WMSE 91.7 FM’s in-studio performance audio engineer Billy Cicerelli is receptive. He also possesses an innate know-how, provides a patient voice of reason, does his homework on every local and national musician he works with and uses his notes to create the optimal sound for everyone he comes across, from hip hop musicians to acoustic folkies. The age-old saying is “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach,” but amazingly, Cicerelli is quite capable on both counts. A naturally curious thinker and problem-solver, Cicerelli has used years of absorbed knowledge to push ahead in his subject of choice – sound. Which came first, though – the music or the mechanics?
The mechanics Cicerelli starts from the beginning. “I was bright and inquisitive when I was young, [and] I had an early draw to music. I started out with that little plastic flute-thing and moved on to clarinet. I had a teacher who was a Dixieland jazz player.” An inherent collector, Cicerelli graduated from the Marvel comics he loved as a kid to Marshall music. “When I was in high school, I started really getting into the whole listening part of music, and started to collect stereo equipment. I’d annoy my mom, because I would come home with parts and she’d be like, ‘what do you need that for?’” Collecting led to learning and utilizing with a fateful trip to Flanner & Hafsoos (now Flanners). Cicerelli, always on the lookout for new toys, fell in love with a pair of Klipschorn speakers, amazed by their ‘wall-reinforced’ sound capability. “When I finally got the salesman to give me the time of day, I asked him about the speakers. Next thing I knew, I was filling out a loan application! I had just been dreaming.” Cicerelli’s face lights up with a huge smile. “I come home from work one night … and the whole living room is consumed by these giant boxes. It was kinda like I was on a mission.” That mission lead Cicerelli to twiddling, tweaking and teaching himself – he’d fuss with mix tapes, compose music with his roommate and try his hand at home recording. Eventually, Cicerelli accrued enough experience and equipment to make professional-level recordings at home. Local bands started seeking him out. “I would do demo records for bands at home and was starting to do some really good things out of my house. I learned the ropes at Midwest Studios, but I was able to do stuff in non-studio situations that came out pretty well, and got me noticed. “That tended to irritate people who recorded out of studios,” Cicerelli says. But the gear and the know-how weren’t what turned other audiophiles green. It was his effortless way of interacting with musicians. “You have to be a good people-person to be a good producer. You need to treat people as individuals and set different parameters.”
Cont’d on pg. 12 >> 10 | Popul ar mechanic | Vital Source | the music issue
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The music The musician-teacher relationship goes way back with Cicerelli, who remembers his days of piano lessons at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. “When I was 21 years old, I decided that I was going to buy a piano. I found a teacher, Tony King ... [and] after I heard him play that first jazz chord, I knew exactly what I wanted to learn. I began taking private lessons and learned a lot – he was a very generous person, so teaching is big to me.” The piano kept Cicerelli’s musician side satisfied. He played for local bands and did an “evil, twisted lounge show” at The Cactus Club in the late ‘80s with his pal, Jim Kane. “Jim ‘Voice As Sweet As Sugar’ Kane was what I used to call him … we were billed as Jim Kane and Billy Martini, [and] we did a mixture of standards and my original material. I would bring in my equipment and use it to show people what it could do.” The Cactus Club gig opened the door to Cicerelli’s work at WMSE, although it didn’t seem like a likely lead-in at the time. “Tom [Crawford] was actually the one who told me to do [the lounge show],” he recalls. “I was doing a couple of live remotes for the radio station from Brett’s [now Points East]. [But] Tom always wanted to do live music at the radio station, and he bought the gear. As they were putting the new station together [in 1999], he went out and got all this new equipment, and said, ‘This is what I want to do,’” Billy says. “He called me in, and I just started setting stuff up. I was pretty much jumping in the water.” Local/Live started to pick up speed with the station’s bi-annual pledge drive in the spring of 2000. Billy was booking notorious Milwaukee bands by the handful – Evel, Dorian Gray, The Danglers, Rick Holmes and Zoot Suit Boogie, Terry Frank and the Bone Deluxe – and setting them up in an unlikely spot: the WMSE library. “People would come up to me and say ‘how did you know the room would sound this good?’ I have a natural ability to size up a room … I’m lucky that way.” But it doesn’t always come easy, as every band – big and small – brings a fresh challenge to Billy’s table. WMSE Station Manager Tom Crawford, who’s known Billy since grade school, has witnessed the magic that Billy works first hand.
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“In 2000, we had Les Percussiones de Guinee [from the Republic of Guinea] in the studio … we had all these drummers and dancers and stringed instruments. Billy walked in and saw all these people … he was pissed. I had told him we’d just record a few people at a time, but their manager said that they only all played together, and that they were an orchestra. He was so angry,” Tom says. “[But] by the time they were done, the kora player was doing a solo, and he was singing a song about losing his lover, and it was a song he sang every night, hoping his lover would return ... and it just hit us. Watching Billy transform this band and this band transform Billy was amazing. Everyone in the studio is listening and dancing, and Billy’s got this huge smile on his face. “It’s one of the most amazing recordings we have.”
The romance Billy’s job is a music lover’s dream come true. “When I came to WMSE, there was so much out there that I knew so little of. Working with these bands, I learn so much. It’s like going on a tour of the world and sampling different types of food. Obviously, you like some more than others, but honestly, if the music is done with an honest motivation, you have to like it.” True ambition and creativity are Cicerelli’s favorite discoveries. “I love working with the young musicians especially, because they throw stuff at you that you never would have thought of. Some of the genius of these people – it’s fricking amazing! “Bottom line: if you don’t love what you’re doing at the end of the day, why are you doing it? If you love what you’re doing, you’re going to keep at it. “Mechanics of Romance has this old tape thing that he has tracks on, and you can look at him and think either he’s crazy, or he’s a genius, and it’s both. He does it with such a passion of belief of what’s he’s doing. And you get guys like Greg Koch who are just brilliant musicians, and that’s satisfying, too.” Music or mechanics? It’s obvious that for Billy Cicerelli, it’s a little bit of both – but mostly, it’s the people behind it that matter. VS
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V ital Source | 13
UNDER
500
Or: the cost of a Milwaukee music video >>By Brian Whitney Fun fact: In my pre-teens, I subscribed to Disney Adventures magazine, perhaps fulfilling a secret craving for pictures of the voice actors from Beauty and the Beast or Andrew Keegan’s thoughts on his three minutes of screen time in Independence Day, though I honestly don’t remember. One thing I do remember is a DA story about the potential for the nascent internet, which discussed in great detail how we would be doing homework, playing games, “instant messaging” friends and watching movies all at the same time, all on one computer. I immediately equated the article with stories about flying cars and personal space travel. We all know what happened next. Five years ago it would have been difficult to think of a world without the internet. Now it seems difficult to picture the internet without YouTube, the video sharing site that consistently averages about 14 million hits daily. YouTube makes it possible to fluster or celebrate – but ultimately publicize – anyone, almost instantly, from the insanely famous to – well, someone like me. It, and its budding counterparts like Google Video and Hulu, are the new, great playingfield levelers, and nowhere are their effects more manifest than in the music industry. Observe the case of OK Go, a marginally successful major label band who raised the stakes in the music world when they posted a video for the song “Here It Goes Again,” featuring a choreographed dance on treadmills. The video vaulted them to fame, earned them a performance on the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards and ultimately won them a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video. Not too shabby for a vid filmed by the singer’s sister on a borrowed camera. So, have local bands embraced this brave new world? Most web videos in general end up looking like local television commercials, replete with poor lighting, shoddy audio and bad performances all around. But several Milwaukee musicians have made compelling pieces of cinema on the cheap and utilized internet video technology for personal gain, notoriety and perhaps even minor fortune. Screenshots from IfIHadAHifi’s video for “Success! Success! Success!”
14 | Under 500 | Vital Source | the music issue
Screenshots from Collections of Colonies of Bee’s minimalist “Flocks II” video.
Like Juiceboxxx. The Milwaukee rap wunderkind has made quite a name for himself on the national stage, performing frantic, sweaty shows around the country and appearing on MTV2’s Subterranean with the video for his song “Thunder Jam III.” While “Thunder Jam” cost more than some musicians make in a year ($11,000+, according to producer Lew Baldwin), the shoot for his followup video “I Don’t Wanna Go Into The Darkness” was a wildly unglamorous affair. The premise is simple enough: Juiceboxxx rocks a crowd with his usual stage antics. He packed sometimes-venue the Vault with various Milwaukee music scene mainstays and supplied them with free PBR. The production crew erected a makeshift stage that probably cost about $30, depending on how much duct tape they purchased. After the free beer was consumed and the crowd was visibly buzzed, Juiceboxxx took the stage, performed the single a few times, then blasted out a couple more songs. Two basic video cameras filmed the proceedings, one near the stage and the other further back to include the crowd. And really, what else do you need to make a decent video? Modern video editing software makes professional production possible for pretty much anyone with a computer, and being an auteur has never been easier. Unfortunately, that means that sorting the wheat from the chaff has never been so hard. It’s a question of too much supply – and not enough demand. “Just because a video is on YouTube doesn’t mean anyone is watching it,” says Christopher Van Gompel, singer/guitarist of Milwaukee band IfIHadAHiFi. Indeed, it is difficult for even witty and compelling videos – like HiFi’s recent clip for the song “Success! Success! Success!” – to gain a following without external exposure. The clip, which shows the band performing at a cake walk that ends in a gore fest, is highly entertaining, despite a budget of almost nothing. “I think there was a budget for the blood, maybe all of $50, and I think someone bought a shirt at a thrift store,” says Van Gompel. But the video’s sheer entertainment value cannot be denied, and it’s an excellent visual match for the song. It remains to be seen whether HiFi’s popularity will dramatically increase with visual exposure. “The ubiquity of music videos definitely makes it more difficult to do something novel and engaging, especially for a band that has no lyrics and 10-minute songs,” says Collections of Colonies of Bees guitarist Chris Rosenau. Instrumental post-rock can easily become overwrought and tedious, yet the Bees manage to pump a fresh vitality into it. The band’s musical minimalism pairs well with their videos for “Flocks II” and “Flocks III” from their 2008 album Birds. One perk of a minimalist approach is that, in the words of synth player Jim Schoenecker, “[It] lends itself to keeping the cost down. But it certainly doesn’t compromise our aesthetic goal.” The Bees seem to have a keen eye for talented directors, and to that end employed “very skilled, talented, and connected friends, that are all also very DIY.” When it comes to making a music video on the cheap, the old sports adage that “the best offense is a good defense” seems to ring true. Being aware of the potential shortcomings of a low budget will help to avoid the pitfalls that many fall into. But the rise of DIY culture seems to have proven that limitations tend to provide their own opportunities. And there has never been a better time to grab a camera and go crazy. So what are you waiting for? VS
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Amazing music-in-film moments For you, me and everyone we know >>By Howie Goldklang
Welcome to Inferiority Complex City: Population – me. So indulge me, you painfully skinny punks, you tattooed, bearded, pierced indie-everything hipsters, indulge me from my little film corner, waving my pseudo-hipster white flag because let’s face it – it’s cooler to be a rocker than an actor. I know, stop rubbing it in. And jeez, VITAL, an entire Music issue! I see how it is. GFY Music, GFY. OK, I’m over it. But in the end I’m a team player. And with that in mind I humbly lay before you my own contribution – amazing music from amazing scenes of amazing films. Be Amazed. And no, Pulp Fiction, Garden State, High Fidelity, Velvet Goldmine and 24 Hour Party People will not appear on this list because those soundtracks are on par and at times better than the films they represent and we are looking for moments, people, moments. Now be amazed. MOVIE: The Big Lebowski SONG: “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” by Sons of the Pioneers Let’s jump right in with two feet. Now you’d think it would be the opening credits track of “The Man in Me” by Bob Dylan (we’ll talk Dylan later) or “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” by Kenny Rogers and The First Edition because whenever you are dealing with Dylan or Kenny Rogers in any conversation they automatically are #1, regardless of the topic: everyone knows this. Except when dealing with The Big Lebowski. The opening scene is simple enough. Narrated by Sam Shepard, the camera pans up from a country hillside to reveal the vast valley of Los Angeles. This is when the vintage, crackling country song “Tumbling Tumbleweeds” plays. It has a kid-with-his-blankee effect: you settle in, feel good and realize everything is gonna be alright because The Big Lebowski is on. Again. MOVIE: Napoleon Dynamite SONG: “Canned Heat” by Jamiroquai This scene might be the greatest school talent show scene since Lindsay Lohan took the bull by the horns and busted out “Jingle Bell Rock” in Mean Girls. Right people?! Who’s with me?! This is scene is also the reason why I kinda want to see the Pedro actor deejay at Cans. We’ve all seen the ads but no one admits to going. Sinners. MOVIE: Trainspotting SONG: “Born Slippy” by Underworld This song legitimized the whole early-90s, skinny, heroined-out/ ecstasy-infused art world in one scene. This dance floor classic plays at the culmination of a drug deal between friends and enemies in a seedy London hotel. The song soundtracks the only silent part of an otherwise dialogue-heavy, narrated film, punctuating the drama and conclusion of the story. Makes we wanna organize a Take Back the Night walk with glowsticks.
MOVIE: Dazed and Confused SONG: “Tuesday’s Gone” by Lynyrd Skynyrd I challenge you to name a better 70s song to play during your teenage convertible drive into the sunrise after the greatest night ever. “Loving Cup” by The Rolling Stones, you say? OK, I challenge you to name a third. MOVIE: The Breakfast Club SONG: “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” By Simple Minds Simple Minds’ legacy lives as the 80s band whose song defined the up-cry feeling at the end of all Coming of Age movies. When I was 14, my friend Rob and I hatched a summertime Breakfast Club plan that we were convinced would result in getting farther with our girlfriends than ever before! His parents were away for a weekend so we dragged a TV and VCR on his back porch and invited over our ladies for a midnight screening, thinking it was the exact kind of cool bonding thing that would result in late-night make-out sessions. By the time the movie ended, both girls were passed out so Rob and I decided to walk around the neighborhood for no reason till sunrise. That pretty much sums up my entire high school hook-up experience. As a tribute to those awkward years, when this gem pops on the radio, I let the LA LA LA LAs rip. MOVIE: Rambo: First Blood 2 SONG: “Bring Him Up/The Eyes” by National Symphony Orchestra & Jerry Goldsmith Rambo is in a faux mud wall, reveals he is fully encased in said wall by opening his eyes, leaps out of the mud wall and kills enemy soldiers with neck snaps, knives and machine guns. All to a full string orchestra. I am drained just thinking about this. So … I’ll end with this: Best Music Movie Double Feature Ever: Pink Floyd Live in Pompeii – it’s the Floyd playing classic freak-out songs, tripping their little British heads off in the middle of an old Italian coliseum, filmed by French dudes in scarfs and leather pants even though it’s summer. The live scenes are intercut with the band in the studio, tripping their little British heads off, eating beans and toast and working out the sessions that would become Dark Side of the Moon. Don’t Look Back: Bob Dylan – Dylan in 1965 in Europe at the height of his acoustic/beat poet powers, picking apart journalists, fans and backstage hangers-on with dry sarcasm and Midwest ironic charm. Shot by DA Pennebaker (Woodstock, Ziggy Stardust, The War Room) on Super 16 black and white – this ain’t from the digital age of “shoot 50 miles of film knowing you can cut later” – Pennebaker created a fly-on-the-wall perspective that became the blueprint for rock-docs and reality TV, all as a one-man film crew on Dylan’s heels. I am still reeling from Rambo. Till next time .... VS
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>>By eric lewin
cinema Vital culture
SONG SUNG BLUE Directed by: Greg Kohs Corn Filmworks Song Sung Blue, the story of Milwaukee-based husband and wife Neil Diamond tribute act Lightning and Thunder, is unabashedly cheesy, unfashionable and straddles the line between vintage and outdated. After all, very few things are less cool than Neil Diamond songs. But much like those songs – without pretense or apology – it is a film that depicts a passionate love of song and a romance determined to last forever in blue jeans: tragedy be damned. Bonding over a “business meeting” at a Brewers game that turned to love by the end of the night, Mike (Lightning) and Claire (Thunder) Sardina fostered a partnership rooted in the songs of Neil Diamond – with a little bit of Patsy Cline. Despite resistance outside of the 414 area code (even booed off stage at a Chicago biker bar), they achieved a cult-like Milwaukee following (according to Milwaukee music pundit Dr. Martin Jack Rosenblum, featured in the film) due in large part to the “everyman” quality that the pair embody and the city embraces. From a marriage ceremony at the Wisconsin State Fair to a guest appearance during a Pearl Jam set at Summerfest, the pair was riding high until figurative lightning struck in the form of a tragic automobile accident that cost Claire her leg. From then on, hardships are around every corner: money troubles, unexpected teenage pregnancy and club owners who callously state their refusal to book “cripples.” Yet through it all, Lightning stands strong: “We’re doing pretty well for two people living on a dream.”
Lightning and Thunder: it’s a matter of love.
Song Sung Blue, like American Movie before it, suggests a cartoonishversion of Milwaukee filled with seemingly sad, unfortunately unaware dream chasers that refuse to accept reality as the rest of the world sees it. But below the surface is a testament to – not a lampoon of – those who refuse to quit. Neil Diamond may have written lyrics like “Find us a dream, don’t ask no question,” but Lightning and Thunder live them. VS
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Vital culture stages
>>BY RYAN FINdLEY
the daily news 11/13
Have a seat 11/7
AYELET ROSE GOTTLIED 11/15
WAR, PEACE AND ART Appropriately for our cultural climate, war and politics are prevalent themes of this month’s theatrical offerings. The Milwaukee Rep opens Greater Tuna, the Milwaukee Chamber Theater offers The Daly News and the UWM Peck School of Arts mounts Arms and the Man. Each deals with the politics of war and the politics of politics couched in light-hearted humor and devastating wit. Meanwhile, Milwaukee dance and music goes cosmopolitan, ranging from Israeli singer/composer Ayelet Rose Gottlieb in Alverno’s
THEATRICAL PREVIEWS GREATER TUNA A two-man show about life in a small Texas town where even the Lion’s Club is too liberal, Greater Tuna is a delightful satire of life in rural America. November 7 at the Stackner Cabaret. 414-224-9490 or milwaukeerep.com THE PHILADELPHIA STORY The Waukesha Civic Theater, in concert with Samuel French, Inc., puts on this comedy of errors centering around a pampered, spoiled Philadelphia socialite, her fiancée, her ex-husband, a Broadway dancer, and her scheming family. November 7 – 23 at the Margaret Brate Bryan Civic Theater Building. 262-547-8484 or waukeshacivictheatre.org MURDERERS Jeff Hatcher’s dark and whimsical comedy about three very different people with only murder in common is mounted by Next Act Theater at the Off-Broadway Theater. The twists and turns will keep you guessing (and laughing) until the very end. November 13 – December 14. 414-278-0765 or nextact.org THE DALY NEWS Milwaukee Chamber Theatre presents a true story by local actor and playwright Jonathan Gillard Daly, this touching story chronicles the Daly family during World War II, when grandfather Martin developed “The Daly News” to keep the family
Global Union series to Danceworks show Have a Seat, featuring Indian choreographer Navtej Johar and members of the Slovenian Ballet. Also on offer is the Florentine Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly, the heartwrenching tale of love and international culture shock. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra gets in on the international theme, too, with its show Varied Moods, presenting composers from such geographically disparate locales as Mexico, Germany, and Russia in one show.
together. November 13 at the Broadway Theatre Center. 414-291-7800 or chamber-theatre.com THE CHERRY ORCHARD The Marquette University Department of Performing Arts presents Chekhov’s poignant tale of aristocratic downfall. November 13 – 23. 414-288-7504 or marquette.edu THE VORTEX Off-the-Wall Theater opens Noel Coward’s The Vortex on November 13. This vintage Coward comedy delights with questions about the reality of aging, and reality in general. 414-357-3552 or offthewalltheatre.com ARMS AND THE MAN The Peck School of the Arts presents this satirical look at romanticized notions of love and war by George Bernard Shaw. At the Mainstage Theater November 18 – 23. 414-229-4308 or arts.uwm. edu/theatre THE DUCK VARIATIONS AND REUNION Two plays by David Mamet full of heart and charm are presented by the Boulevard Theater as part of its David Mamet Festival. The theater itself is in the heart of the charming Bay View neighborhood, and the show runs from November 19 through December 7. 414-744-5757 or boulevardtheatre.com
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A CHRISTMAS CAROL It wouldn’t be Christmas without A Christmas Carol, a Milwaukee Rep tradition. This beloved holiday classic is extravagantly staged at the gorgeous Pabst Theater. November 28 – December 28. 414-224-9490 or milwaukeerep.com MADAMA BUTTERFLY The Florentine Opera produces Madama Butterfly in honor of Puccini’s 150th birthday. See this tragic tale of love and betrayal, culture clash and lost innocence at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, November 21 – 23. 414-291-5700 or florentineopera.org HARRY CONNICK JR.’s THE HAPPY ELF First Stage Children’s Theater puts on a special Christmas show just for kids. There’s no grumpiness at Christmas, and Eubie, the ebullient title character, is determined to teach that lesson to an entire town. November 28 – December 24 in the Todd Wehr Theater. 414-273-7206 or firststage.org THE PRODUCERS The Skylight Opera mounts this beloved Broadway musical farce opening November 28 in the Broadway Theater Center, starring Bill Thiesen and Brian Vaughn as the scheming producers. 414-291-7800 or skylightopera.com
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stages Vital culture MUSIC OF NOTE FREE-FOR-ALL SUNDAY The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music continues its free Sunday concert series with a performance that covers a wide range of guitarplaying styles including classical, jazz, fingerstyle, contemporary, folk, bluegrass and flamenco. November 2. 414-276-5760 or wcmusic.org A WORLD OF INNOCENCE The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra presents the world as a child might see it, full of joy and innocence, November 7 and 8. Featuring soprano Heidi Stober and Sa Chen on the piano. 414-273-7206 or mso.org WIZARDS AND WANDS This concert is tailored for the younger audience as the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra presents a concert based upon the popular Harry Potter book series as part of its Kinderkonzert series. November 9 at the Marcus Center. 414-273-7206 or mso.org PLAYATHON The Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra presents all of its various ensembles, including the Jazz, Calypo and Progression ensembles, at the Bayshore Town Center on November 9 in an all-dayplayathon. Stop by for a bit, or stay for the whole shebang. 414-267-2950 or myso.org
WE SIX SERIES: GIVE THE DRUMMER SOME Wisconsin Conservatory of Music’s tribute to jazz greats continues with this concert dedicated to the innovative percussion found in much jazz music. November 20 at the Conservatory. 414-276-5706 or wcmusic.org.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Disney’s musical production comes to southeastern Wisconsin via the Racine Theater Guild, including all of your kid’s favorite songs. The show opens November 28. 262-633-4218 or racinetheatre.org
A PRESENT MUSIC THANKSGIVING This show brings together Present Music, Milwaukee Choral Artists, the Milwaukee Children’s Choir, Alexandra DuBois, David Jaffe and the Bucks Native American Singing & Drumming Group for a singular evening of musical delight at St. John’s Cathedral on November 23. 414-2710711 or presentmusic.org
HAVE A SEAT Danceworks opens its season on November 7 with this eclectic mix of performances choreographed by Guest Artistic Director Janet Lilly and Navtej Johar, a Bharatanatyam performer and choreographer based in New Delhi. Members of the Slovenian Ballet join the Danceworks Company in these dances in which everyone gets to pull up a seat and take a load off. 414-227-8480 or danceworksmke.org
DANCE
INSPIRED Nicholas McGegan conducts the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra through Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique,” a wild tale of love, demons and madness, in addition to two works by Mendelssohn. November 28 and 29 at the Marcus Center. 414-273-7206 or mso.org
AYELET ROSE GOTTLIEB Part of the 2008-2009 Alverno Presents Global Union concert series, Israeli singer/composer Ayelet Rose Gottlieb brings her Mayim Rabim song cycle to Milwaukee, in which she uses Middle Eastern and Western jazz influences to create a backdrop for songs written based upon the Biblical romantic poem Song of Songs. November 15 at the Pitman Theater. 414-382-6044 or alvernopresents. alverno.edu VARIED MOODS Works by Reveultas, Rachmaninoff and Schumann mingle in this performance of sounds covering the emotional spectrum as well as the globe, brought to you by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. November 14 and 15 at the Marcus Center. 414-273-7206 or mso.org CZECH IT OUT! The Wisconsin Conservatory of Music presents the debut concert of Philomusica, their resident string quartet, in a program featuring works by Czech composers Martinu, Smetana and Dvorák. 414-276-5760 or wcmusic.org
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intimate: a sort of venue guide >>By Nick Schurk The good news: the laudable efforts of the booking talent behind large and medium-sized concert venues in Milwaukee have utterly negated our city’s former reputation as the fly-over zone between Chicago and Madison. Even better, Milwaukee’s ever-fertile local music scene now rests within the context of our newly-minted and fast-rising status as a “music city,” our name increasingly bandied about alongside Chicago, Minneapolis and even Austin. Seattle? So 20th century. Now is our time to shine, and in every neighborhood you can barely throw a rock without hitting a favorite spot to experience live local music in the best possible way – up close and personal. Just in case you don’t get out much, here’s a guide to some of the city’s best – or at least most interesting – intimate venues. Are you a poor college student? Does the thought of leaving campus via public transportation frighten and confuse you? The UW-Milwaukee Union Gasthaus (2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.) offers big-name performances most Thursdays by locals like Fever Marlene and Maritime as well as national up and comers like We The Living and Good Asian Drivers. Head up one flight of stairs and catch a show at UWM’s 8th Note Coffee House, which offers free, all-ages rock shows to students and the general public. Riverwest, the bohemian epicenter of Milwaukee’s East Side, supplements its basement-party reputation with a fair share of legit venues. For almost two decades, Mad Planet (533 E. Center St.) has been fueling the neighborhood’s subculture with every kind of music under the sun. From Midwest flavored hip-hop (Mac Lethal, Juiceboxxx) to sludgy, Japanese metal (Boris), Mad Planet books some of the best and most unique acts from around the world. Two things to keep in mind: All shows are 21+ and the club’s Retro Dance Party (held every Friday night) is the
best way to get that earful of The Smiths/Split Enz/Bow Wow Wow you would never publicly admit to craving. And it’s just a short stumble to Stonefly, where excellent local and national rock acts regularly share a bill. For a more intimate evening, head over to the Jazz Estate (2423 N. Murray Ave.). This smoke-choked cube on Milwaukee’s East Side hosts weekly performances from artists like folk songstress Amy Rohan and the unruly, improvisational The Erotic Adventures of the Static Chicken. Still, the scene never stagnates thanks to an ever-changing lineup of jazz and jazz-inspired ensembles. Not far, on pretty, gritty Brady Street, the Estate’s kindred spirit The Up & Under (1216 E. Brady St.) offers some of the best blues performances in the area. Of course we would be remiss not to mention The Cactus Club (2496 S. Wentworth Ave.), arguably the crown jewel of Milwaukee’s music venues. This tiny Bay View club has managed to snatch some major headliners (Queens of the Stone Age, Death Cab for Cutie, Interpol, etc.) from the clutches of venues with more pull like The Rave and The Pabst. But more importantly, The Cactus Club regularly hosts performances from the best in the area, creating a who’s who of Milwaukee acts. The blistering, visceral howls of Call Me Lightning’s Nathan Lilly, The Championship’s Springsteen-inspired antics and the brilliantly odd arrangements of John the Savage are all regularly heard spilling out of the club’s front door like drunken bar brawlers. The Cactus Club is so epically awesome it was chosen to host a special VITAL Source party later this month (more info on that on page 11)! No matter what genre of music best suits your palate, there is a club in Milwaukee that’s dishing it up on a regular basis. From Zad’s (438 S. 2nd St.) hard-rock throwdowns to the “Erin go brea”
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spirit of County Clare’s (1234 N. Astor Street) all-Celtic line up, this city has all the bases covered. Kind of makes you wonder why you’re sitting here reading about all these clubs and not searching for a scene of your own, huh? MORE LIVE MUSIC TO WHET YOUR WHISTLE Art Bar 722 E. Burleigh St. 414-372-7880 artbar-riverwest.com BBC 2022 E. North Ave. 414-272-7263 myspace.com/gdaddysbbc Bremen Café 901 E. Clarke St. 414-431-1932 bremencafe.com Café Lulu 2265 S. Howell Ave. 414-294-LULU lulubayview.com Caroline’s Jazz Club 401 S. 2nd St. 414-221-9444 jazzatcarolines.com Club ? 807 S. 5th St. 414-383-5680 clubanything.us Club Garibaldi 2501 S. Superior St. 414-483-6335
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Frank’s Power Plant 2800 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. 414-481-9200 myspace.com/frankspowerplant Linneman’s Riverwest Inn 1001 E. Locust St. 414-263-9844 linnemans.com Miramar Theatre 2844 N. Oakland Ave. 414-967-0302 themiramartheatre.com Points East Pub 1501 N. Jackson St. 414-277-0122 pointseastpub.com Riverwest Commons 815 E. Locust St. 414-372-9656 myspace.com/theriverwestcommons Stonefly 735 E. Center St. 414-264-3630 stoneflybrewery.com Shank Hall 1434 N. Farwell Ave. 414-276-7288 shankhall.com Vnuk’s 5036 S. Packard Ave. 414-481-1655 vnuks.com YNOT III 1854 E. Kenilworth St. Milwaukee, WI 414-224-9668 Zad’s 438 S. 2nd St. 414-271-9130
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Behind the Scaffolding
>>By Dan Corcoran
From sausages to mansions and the mayor’s pajama party In a nutshell: Regardless of whether Mayor Barrett’s budget is the one Milwaukee ends up with, cuts are going to happen. And somebody’s going to get hurt. It seems that there’s just not enough money to do everything and the federal “aid” recently delivered to the city to help with its impending mortgage crisis fell far short of expectations. In the meantime, Barrett has been out and about, cavorting with sausages and holding town hall meetings on a budget he’s already submitted. The Sanitation and Forestry departments have nothing nice to say about each other, but it’s probably not personal. Then there’s that Goll Mansion thing. Oh yeah, and the mayor’s car almost got towed — but, luckily, he’s the mayor.
Sour Sanitation: On a recent stroll with some Milwaukee Sanitation workers, they had nothing good to say about the Forestry Department. “Those guys haven’t been out to trim trees in years.” And, “There are ‘sucker trees’ growing out of the base of so many city trees, it’s ridiculous.” So naturally, I sought out some Forestry types to get the other side of the story. “Sanitation is a joke,” said one. “Those guys have it easy – and they have no idea what we do.” The back story to all of this is that the tight budget has inflamed a rivalry between Sanitation and Forestry, because both face significant cuts. And most likely neither wants to end up taking care of the backlog of municipal pruning.
So read on, and feel free to drop me a line at dcorcoran@vitalsourcemag. com. I welcome your additions, corrections and general feedback.
Kovac vs. Boris II: Because of concerns from neighbors on Prospect Ave., New Land’s controversial condo project, which includes a “restoration” of the historic Goll Mansion, 11 Common Council votes were needed, and delivered. Nick Kovac, whose Third District is nearby, was the lone dissenter against the project, ostensibly for the same reasons as the neighbors who mourned the loss of their lake views and protested over-development in an historic neighborhood. But no one has really looked much at the Boris/ Kovac history, in my opinion. (True, most on the East Side already know about the Kovac family/Boris Gokhman fued over Downer Ave., but it’s interesting ... ) Despite Kovac’s opposition to the Prospect Ave. project, which is actually in Ald. Bauman’s district, this project has gone pretty smoothly for Boris so far. We’ll keep watching, as this tandem is sure to tangle again.
Federal Foreclosure Dollars: The City of Milwaukee expected $15-$20 million, but we only got $9.1 million. According to the Fed’s Housing and Urban Development Office, Milwaukee was only the 55th hardest-hit city in the nation; Wisconsin, on the other hand, was the 17th hardest hit state. Rural and suburban areas have been hit harder by foreclosures than we have, apparently. California will get a full quarter of the HUD funds – around $500 million (That’s a headline all on its own: Wall Street whines over puny $700 billion bailout; Main Street grateful for $4 billion). But the formula that HUD used hurts Milwaukee, simply because so far we’ve lagged behind in the nationwide housing slump. Now, with our unemployment rate climbing and the global markets reeling, I, along with many others, predict that next year will see far more foreclosures in Milwaukee than 2008 or 2007. Barrett spends quality time with Hot Dog and Polish Sausage: In early October, our Mayor crossed the street with the Klement’s Racing Brat to kick off StreetShare Pedestrian Safety Week, intended to raise awareness that Wisconsin State Law requires drivers to yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk whether it is marked with paint or unmarked. Just days earlier, he presided over the unveiling of a giant Brewers banner on City Hall as part of the celebration of Brewers Day, so declared by his Mayorship to commemorate the Brewers’ first playoff trip in 26 years.
Wait, I’m the mayor! Word from some friends in the Public Works Department is that the mayor had to run out into the street in his pajamas one recent night to keep city workers from towing his car. Apparently, Washington Blvd. had been changed from a no-parking zone to a towaway zone. Usually, the city does not enforce such a change until a certain amount of time has passed. They jumped the gun this time and picked the wrong car. But what if it was you or me? My guess is we wouldn’t have been so lucky. VS
Listening sessions: Aldermen have been having them on all sides of the city to hear how residents feel about the 2009 City budget. Now Barrett is having town hall meetings on the subject as well. Not too many folks at his Miramar Theater meeting — maybe 20 people. Maybe a good idea to get out in the neighborhoods, but he has already presented this budget to the Common Council, so there’s not much the mayor can do when he gets public comment on the decisions he already made. Oh well, better late than never.
24 | behind the scaffolding | Vital Source | news + views
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Vital’s Picks >> By erin lee petersen
Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s November 1 – Turner Hall Ballroom The story goes that sometime in 2004, a young musician named Richard Edwards and young guitarist Andy Fry met randomly at a pet store, struck up a conversation and decided to form a band. A few months and about six band members later, Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s was formed, incorporating that familiar indie guitar melancholy with singer/songwriter soul, plus trumpets and lap steel guitar. Sweeeeet. 414-286-3663 or turnerhallballroom.org Skylight Night: A Pirates Ball November 1 – The Pfister Hotel The English word “pirate” was derived from a Latin term that loosely means, “to find luck on the sea.” Negative connotations aside, lucky you shall be if ye should find yourself at The Skylight’s Pirates Ball, an annual benefit to raise funds for the Skylight and its programs, held at the lovely Pfister Hotel. This swashbuckling evening includes dinner, live and silent auctions, along with music and dancing provided by Milwaukee’s own Vegas-inspired lounge act The Five Card Studs. Sounds pretty swanky, matey. Eye patch not necessar y, but always encouraged. 414-273-8222 or skylightopera.com
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Bob Dylan November 6 – the Riverside Theatre In the early ‘60s, a young Bob Dylan heard an Odetta record that changed his life. Well, sort of. Upon hearing the beauty and despair of American folk music, he immediately traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic flat-top Gibson. A few years later he gained a spot on the Dinkytown folk circuit and the rest is history. For decades Dylan’s music has given voice generations of restless Americans; he’s collaborated with dozens of artists from Joan Baez to Michael Bolton (whoa!), dared to play folk on an electric guitar and even became a born-again Christian. In short, the man has more lives than a cat and still maintains a beloved place in the pantheon of American music. 414-286-3663 or riversidetheater.org Dia de Los Muertos Ofrendas Exhibit November 7 – Latino Arts Center It is believed that during the Days of the Dead, the souls of the departed are able to visit the living. On these sacred days, people go to the cemeteries where their loved ones lie to communicate with them and attempt to attract deceased souls by building private altars containing ofrendas, or offerings, of favorite foods and beverages, marigolds, candies, photos and memorabilia. A mixture of Christian and indigenous traditions, Dia de Los Muertos celebrates the inevitability of death, and the life that leads up to it. The Latino Arts Center presents the work of local, regional
The fauna and -- um, flora -- of Flora Langlois @ Tory Folliard Gallery
and international artists who offer their interpretations of the ancient ritual with the Ofrendas exhibit, on display until November 21. 414-384-3100 or latinoartsinc.org. 9th Annual Kiwanis Brew Fest November 7 – Milwaukee County War Memorial Center Okay, how can I put this: this event allows you to support Milwaukee parks, children’s education programs and river cleanups while you drink beer. It sounds weird (and delicious!), but this fundraiser is actually a great way to invest in the community. For the price of admission, you get endless beverage samples from the likes of Sprecher, Lakefront, Capital, Point and New Glarus breweries, just to name a few. If you need a snack to help soak up all of that frothy deliciousness, stop by the Saz’s tent for appetizers. All proceeds will go to benefit organizations supported by the Kiwanis Club, including the Special Olympics, SAFE Kids and MPTV, among others. metromilwaukeekiwanis.org Feed Your Soul November 7 – Flux Design It starts with a simple wooden bowl, which serves as a symbol of hunger in our own backyard. Then this simple medium is transformed into inventive works of art by the freaky genius minds of artists in Milwaukee’s design community at Feed Your Soul, an annual event that has helped raise over $150,000 to support America’s Second Harvest of Wisconsin. Each unique bowl will be auctioned off at the event and all proceeds will go to Second Harvest, Wisconsin’s largest non-profit food distributor. feedyoursoul.net Open Canvas November 8 – PH Dye Building The equation for a successful fundraiser in Milwaukee is: food + drinks + live art = fun. At Open Canvas, more than 80 artists will be given a blank 36”x54” canvas to use as they please. While the artists work, art lovers and collectors can peruse the open bar, enjoy tasty hors d’oeuvres and bid on their favorite pieces in a silent auction. All proceeds benefit the William F. Eisner Museum and MIAD scholarship funds. 414-847-3200 or miad.edu Design Within Reach Book Fair November 8 – Design Within Reach I’m sure that most of you art & design junkies already have the itch for Art vs. Craft (coming up
26 | november picks | Vital Source | vital living
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later this month). You’re burning with anticipation to gorge on piles and piles of choice crafty delights, but in the meantime, you can sate your cravings at the Design Within Reach Book Fair! Lounge in style while you check out goods from Broad Vocabulary, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Harry W. Schwartz and more. Start saving your allowance now! 414-224-5353 or dwr.com smoked out: a vital rock show November 15 – The Cactus Club We don’t like to complain; in fact, we absolutely love what we do. But folks, we worked damn hard on this here issue, and to celebrate our efforts we’ve decided to throw a kickass party in our honor! Join us at the Cactus Club to mix and mingle while Milwaukee bands IfIHadAHiFi, Canyonsofstatic and The Celebrated Workingman rock us til’ the wheels fall off. Oh, and get this — the cover is a measly five-spot. We’ll see you there! 2496 S. Wentworth. vitalsourcemag.com Dolly Parton November 17 – Riverside Theater Oh my god. I’m so excited that I can barely write. Sure, Dolly’s known mostly for her flamboyance, tongue-in-cheek humor and ... well, you know what else. But Dolly was writing songs and playing music behind the scenes for years before she entered the limelight. She started singing at age nine and
Dolly Parton. We are freaking out. 11/17 @ The Pabst Theater
collaborated with country acts until the early 1970’s when she released “I Will Always Love You,” her first solo song, and rose to #1 on the country charts. The Smokey Mountain Soprano is blowing through Milwaukee on her Backwoods Barbie (!!!) Tour, so get your tickets, and get ‘em
fast. In the meantime, I suggest that you prepare yourself by watching 9 to 5, Steel Magnolias, Straight Talk and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Back to back. pabsttheater.com
vital living | Vital Source | november picks | 27
Release of the Beaujolais Nouveau November 20 – Eisner Museum The annual emergence of Beaujolais on the third Thursday of November celebrates the end of the harvest around the world. Once Gamay grapes have been picked by hand, the whole berry is fermented without removing any tannins, the wine is pasteurized to preserve freshness and voila! Less than two months later you have Beaujolais, a lightweight purple-pink wine only available in limited edition. Join the Alliance Francaise de Milwaukee and raise your glass to the world! afmilwaukee.org Flora Langlois: Matters of Nature Dennis Wojtkiewicz: Ripe and Illuminated November 21 – Tory Folliard Gallery Tory Folliard Gallery opens two solo exhibitions that explore the natural world and the nature of time. Costa Rica native Flora Langlois’ acrylic paintings highlight beauty within the environment, but add a twist of whimsy to create mystical characters and landscapes that channel a joyful energy. Ohio artist Dennis Wojtkiewicz’s works in oil ponder the sensitive nature of time. His oversized paintings incorporate an ethereal light and photorealism, making his subjects look good enough to eat. Through December 27. 414-273-4311 or toryfolliard.com Independent Lens: I.O.U.S.A. November 25 John Michael Kohler Arts When I.O.U.S.A. premiered in August 2008, the tagline read “One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt.” How poignant. I.O.U.S.A. follows former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker as he traverses the country, trying his best to explain America’s unstable financial practices to its citizens, but goes beyond the rhetoric and partisan boundaries to propose solutions about how we can avoid an economic disaster recreate a fiscally sound nation. 920-458-6144 or jmkac.org Art vs. Craft November 29 Humphrey Masonic Center It’s official. The holiday season is upon us and soon Black Friday will send shoppers into a tizzy, cramming malls and freeways, vying for the hottest holiday gifts. Luckily, there’s an alternative with Art vs. Craft, Milwaukee’s bi-annual indie fair and brainchild of craft goddesses Faythe Levine and Kim Kisiolek. Stroll the AvC marketplace for unique handmade fineries by regional and national artists; buy directly from the creative source instead of spending your hard-earned dough on mass-produced items from giant corporations. Good stuff. artvscraft.com
28 | november picks | Vital Source | vital living
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Act on these
visual arts picks
>>Judith Ann Moriarty Last month a new publication (Alt-) landed on the scene, fueled by a new generation of local artists getting the word out about what they’re up to. The beat continues with a goodly number of small energetic galleries testing their mettle, not the least of which is the Armoury Gallery in the Fortress building. You have until November 15 to see In Contour, showcasing three artists who use strong lines and edges in their work. Two of the participants, Paul Kjelland and Julia Schilling, are MIAD grads; the third, Sonja Peterson, is completing her MFA at the University of Minnesota. The gallery’s website (thearmourygallery.com) is a clutter-free place for a preview. Professional is a key word in their approach. November 15 is also your last chance to immerse yourself in Folliard Gallery’s biennial Open Lands show, depicting the restful scenery of the Midwest. The election is over (whew!), but global concerns grind on. Valerie Christell teaches art at Alverno College, and on November 14 her Contemporary Topics students will install a collaborative, site specific exhibit, on view through December 5 in the college’s Christopher Hall. Last year’s installations included work about genocide. How will you react to this one? Act/React, an interactive art exhibit, is underway in the Baker/Rowland galleries at Milwaukee Art Museum, and in tandem with that, Margot Lovejoy’s November 12 lecture at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design addresses interactivity issues. Lovejoy, the author of Digital Currents: Art in the Electronic Age, speaks at 7 pm. Seven winners of the 2007 Mary Nohl Fellowship awards gather at Inova/ Kenilworth (through January 18, 2009) in an exhibit curated by Bruce Knack-
Paul Kjelland in In Contour @ The Armoury Gallery
ert, an excellent man. Look for work by Faythe Levine (co-owner of the wildly successful Paper Boat Boutique on Howell), Colin Matthes, Kevin Miyazaki, and others. Controversy surrounds this show, but only because it seems short on females. Two made this year’s cut, the aforementioned Ms. Levine and filmmaker Annie Killelea. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s free Visual Art Lecture Series presents Mads Lynnerup in an event titled “You Are The Artist, You Figure It Out.” Mads is a video artist and sculptor, and he’ll present his latest work along with words about it on November 12 in the Arts Center Lecture Hall, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd, at 7 pm. For more Mads, he’s featured in stop.look listen at the Haggerty Museum now until way into 2009, which is to say February 22. If you get the short end of the turkey wishbone this year, no big deal. Lots of folks got short changed big time. Go sink your teeth into art instead. VS
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vital Living | Vital Source | november arts picks | 29
The Fifth Grade Blues Emma came to me last week with yet another form to sign. This one was a re-do slip from her teacher. She held up her spelling practice sheet for me to see. “I spelled ‘radiant’ wrong on my practice sheet. Forgot the ‘t’ on the end. So, I wrote it out ten times here like I’m supposed to and you need to sign this paper.” As expected, the paper was verification that my daughter had shown me the mistake and the correction. However, the wording was upsetting to me. It said, “My child has shown me both the unacceptable work and the corrections.” Unacceptable? Really? A simple spelling mistake on a practice sheet is now unacceptable? We no longer allow elementary school students to make mistakes? I make no secret about how much I love my kids’ elementary school. The facilities are well-maintained. The support staff is caring and informed. The art program teaches kids how to utilize as many mediums as possible. The physical education classes are structured to teach skill and emphasize teamwork over competition. There is a definite sense of community that spans from four-year-olds in junior kindergarten up through the fifth graders. When I hear of children in southeastern Wisconsin going to schools where all of the “specials” have been cut, and even recess time is limited, my heart breaks for them. But with funding down, the economy failing and No Child Left Behind forcing educators to “teach to the test,” this is a reality for a growing number of kids. I can’t imagine not having our school as a choice for my children’s education. All of that said, there is one place where I feel our school could use some serious revision to the current methods being used in the classroom. The fifth grade teachers, in an effort to prepare the kids for middle school, come down very hard on their 10 and 11 year-old students. In the opinion of many parents of fifth graders (myself included), harder than necessary. I went through the fifth grade program three years ago with Lena. I remember many, many nights where she sat in front of her homework for two or three hours, diligently working through page after page of assignments. The curriculum in our school calls for approximately 10 minutes per grade of homework each night, meaning second graders should spend about 20 minutes, third graders should spend about 30 minutes, and so on. When I asked her teacher about the heavy work load (heavy – her back pack regularly weighed more than 20 pounds!), she couldn’t believe the work she was assigning could possibly take that long. I mean, she literally didn’t believe me.
She’s a good student – does her homework, raises her hand in class, doesn’t interrupt her teacher. Art is her favorite subject, with music a close second. All in all, Emma is a public school success story. But she was nervous to move from fourth to fifth grade. For four years, she has been watching the oldest students at her school, as well as their teachers. Yes, she was probably influenced by Lena’s experience a few years ago, but she has been just as influenced by observing the experiences of other kids. It’s not just the heavy homework load that had Emma worried. It was the widespread perception that the fifth grade teachers don’t really like fourth graders (duh, Mom, everybody knows that!) and that “they’re crabby, like, all the time.” And, as shown above, they are not careful with their language. I don’t mean they swear at the kids, but that the tone is overly harsh. Not only is it no longer ‘acceptable’ for the students to make mistakes, they are told throughout the year that fifth grade is easy compared to middle school, and if they can’t make it now, they’ll never make it in sixth grade. This tone is such a departure from what these same children heard just the year before from the fourth grade teachers who are so supportive and nurturing. There is an air of neurosis that pervades the fifth grade students as they try to adjust to this new attitude from their instructors and deal with the ever-mounting fear of starting middle school next year. Before Lena moved from fifth to sixth grade a few years ago, several middle school parents told me that sixth grade was actually easier than fifth. And they were right. The work load was more manageable, the teachers were more involved and there were more supports in place for children who needed the extra help. I reminded Emma of this just last night. She came to me, worry all over her face, and said, “Mom, the work is really piling up! We have our explorer project, our author project, mini-economy, book-it, all of our regular assignments … and … we haven’t even started our state fair work yet! I don’t know if I can do all of it.” In truth, for the first time in my kids’ nascent academic careers, I feel powerless. So I promised her I would be on her side, help as much as I could. And I reassured her that fifth grade is just one year – next year will be better. VS
My middle girl, Emma, entered fifth grade this fall. She started our school in first grade and has loved all of her teachers and most of her classmates.
30 | slightly crunchy parent | Vital Source | vital LIVING
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eat this
Vital living
MORE THAN GREEN BEANS Two vegetarian complements for holiday celebrations >>Catherine McGarry Miller + Photos by Lynn Allen Chef Partner Dustin Green Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar flemingssteakhouse.com At 28, Flemings Chef Partner Dustin Green has mounted the corporate cookery ladder like a firefighter rescuing a baby. His love for cooking started at age 10 and lead to two college degrees in culinary arts and hospitality. “The principles of Fleming’s make it the best company I’ve ever worked for,” he says. These values include excellence, hospitality and respect as well as fun, trust and balance. Hierarchy is eschewed in favor of an egalitarian system of associates instead of employees. The fun comes naturally, says Green. “Fun with the menus, using the best products money can buy – in a professional environment. This makes for a happier and more successful staff.”
Pumpkin Bread Pudding 6 cups diced baguette 2 cups heavy cream 1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin Five whole eggs 1 1/2 T corn syrup 1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar 1 1/4 t vanilla extract 1/2 t ground ginger 1 1/4 t ground cinnamon 1/4 t nutmeg 1/4 t salt Room temperature butter as needed Extra sugar as needed Whipped cream, walnuts, mint sprig (optional) Orange crème anglaise (below) Dice baguette into ½” pieces and place on a sheet pan. Bake in a 250º oven for 8 minutes to dry out. Place cream in a saucepan and bring to a low simmer. In a large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, corn syrup, sugar, vanilla, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Whip to blend well. Slowly add warm cream and baguette; mix well. Allow to sit at room temperature for 5 minutes. Spread butter inside five 12 oz. coffee cups, then coat with sugar. Evenly fill each cup with pudding mix, leaving ½” at the top. Place cups in a 2” deep baking pan and fill the pan with 1” of water. Bake in a 325º oven for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry. Let cool for 5 minutes, then invert the cup to remove the bread pudding. Place 1 ½ oz. orange crème anglaise in the center of a 9” plate. Squirt caramel sauce in a spiral design in the anglaise. Using a toothpick, make a web design. Set the bread pudding on top of the sauce with the crusted side facing up and top with a dollop of of whipped cream.
Serve with walnuts and a mint sprig, if you like.
Orange Crème Anglaise 1 qt heavy cream 1 vanilla bean 1 cup fresh egg yolks 1 cup sugar 2 cups pasteurized orange juice 2 T orange zest In a saucepot over high heat, add cream. Slice vanilla bean in half lengthwise and add flesh and skin to cream. Heat cream for 10-15 minutes to let cream rise to the top of the saucepot, then turn off heat. Separate eggs and place the yolks in a mixing bowl. Combine the sugar with the yolks and mix well. Temper the egg and sugar mixture by gradually pouring a little of the hot cream over eggs a little at a time. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepot on medium-high heat. Continue to mix with a rubber spatula until sauce coats the back of the spatula. Strain through chinoise or other fine strainer into a clean container. Place orange juice and orange zest in a saucepot and reduce by half. Cool down and add to the anglaise.
Ruth Lopez-Najera Poet Ruth Lopez-Najera has been published in Free Verse Magazine and a chapbook produced by the Women’s Writers Circle of Milwaukee. She has read her works at Marquette, Schwartz Bookstores and Jitterz Cafe. She is also a board member for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Maple Sweet Potato Casserole 4 medium-sized sweet potatoes 1/3 cup butter 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup maple syrup Gentle dash ground cinnamon Gentle dash ground cloves Pinch salt Boil potatoes until cooked but firm. When cool enough to handle, peel and slice them. Set aside. In a small saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Cook until it has a syrupy consistency, adding a small amount of water or orange juice to thin if needed. In a buttered casserole dish, layer sweet potato slices, alternating with syrup. Bake in covered dish for approximately 35 to 45 minutes at 325º. Sweet potatoes should be soft and syrupy, almost dry.
vital Living | Vital Source | eat this | 31
Stranger in a Strange Land Act/React at the Milwaukee Art Museum
Now – January 11, 2009 • Milwaukee Art Museum
Daniel Rozin’s “Snow MIrror”
By Judith Ann Moriarty I’m bound to the past. I approach the very idea of “interactive” art with a wary eye. To view a painting, sculpture or photograph is a personal event shaped by my education in the arts and my philosophy of what art is. I enjoy being pleased by the sublime. Joining the masses headed for the next big thing is not my idea of a great art experience. So I asked myself, “Is interactive art a passing fancy or a fancy pass?” It’s certainly not a new form of expression. It’s been around for at least half of my seven decades on earth. As a kid I touched on it (marginally) when I sat in bed with a flashlight and used my fist and a few digits to cast shadow “animals” on the wall. Maybe that was more generative than interactive, but it came close. Act/React opened in the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Baker/Rowland galleries on October 4. The pre-show hype trumpets a 10,000 square-foot installation featuring “talking tables, virtual snowstorms, paths of fluorescent light and glowing pools of organic patterns … all dependent upon and subject to the physical influence of the visitor and groups of visitors in the gallery space”(MAM Insider, Fall 08). The first of its kind, exclusive to MAM, it hasn’t yet been described as a “blockbuster” event, but I couldn’t help fearing it would be eerily similar to a ‘60s disco with weird lights, paisley overkill and total immersion in total funk. And so it was that I spent hours entering and exiting the Baker/Rowland gal-
32 | ART | Vital Source | Vital culture
leries, attending lectures, panels and gallery talks. I studied the online history of the interface. I slogged through virtual games, ‘60s Happenings and video art and learned that the computer-controlled IA idea began in 1969 with Glowflow, a space with pressure-sensitive sensors on its floor, loudspeakers in the four corners of the room and tubes with colored suspensions on the wall. As the movement gained speed, artists Robert Rauschenberg and James Seawright latched on to the moveable sensory feast. The Museum’s Sensory Overload, with Erwin Redl’s mathematical marvel, Matrix XV, 2007, Landsman’s Walk-In Infinity Chamber, 1968 and Sonic II, a wall-hung piece which reacts with noises to the presence of visitors, garnered mixed reviews, but the show set the stage for Act/React, which runs through January 11, 2009. Here’s an excerpt from Katherine Murrell, co-publisher of susceptibletoimages.com. Written for their June 11, 2008 issue, it speaks to at least some of my wariness about IA: The quest for interactivity is one that seems to be on the mind of many cultural institutions. With a society so accustomed to being entertained, to having sensory experience on-demand and in all forms, whether it be the high definition DVD on the giganto plasma screen or Lawrence of Arabia squashed down to fit your cell phone, we usurp images into our medium of choosing within the informal context of our lives. Daniel Keegan, the new executive director of MAM, more or less concurs
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Beauty harmonizes consciousness from top to bottom. It is as organically vital as digestion. Beauty is, or ought to be no big deal, though the lack of it is.
illusion filtered through the mind of the artist. If my experience is delicious, I’m thrilled. In his glorious book Let’s See, New Yorker magazine art critic Peter Schjeldahl has this to say about “beauty”: Beauty is not a concept. To begin with, it is a common word, defined in a dictionary as “the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind …” Beauty harmonizes consciousness from top to bottom. It is as organically vital as digestion. Beauty is, or ought to be no big deal, though the lack of it is. Act/React does not lack for beauty. It’s tempting to compare it to The Wizard of Oz, which ultimately (when the fog clears) defrocks the Wizard and reveals him to be an ordinary man pushing levers and gears. In the September 15, 2008 issue of The New Yorker, pop music critic Sasha Frere-Jones muses about a contemporary musician who uses only a laptop onstage. She asks the question, “There is no longer anyway of telling whether or not the Wizard is behind the curtain. Does it matter?” The six “wizard/artists” behind Act/React would likely say it doesn’t. I asked George Fifield, a former Milwaukeean who guest-curated the brainy exhibit, to define “beauty.” He told me, “Beauty is that which is pleasantly unexpected.” Having fought the very idea of interactive art, frankly, I expected not much at all. What a fool. The exhibit is so smartly installed (with room to breathe and space to think) that I exited in fine spirits, feeling at least marginally informed about what’s behind all those levers and gears. You needn’t fret about understanding the technology pumping Act/React. Nerd or not, you’ll discover beauty aplenty on the walls and on the floors and in the darkened enclosed rooms. Lest you forget, it’s the inquiring minds of the artists who brought it
when he says the museum is “perpetually searching for new ways to engage our audience.” Call it entertainment (or engagement) – a new generation attached to high-technology wants it all and wants it now. The six artists participating in Act/React aren’t wet behind the ears. Several of them have been involved in IA for the past decade, and one of them (Liz Phillips) has been at it for 39 years. During my second visit to the exhibit, Ms. Phillips’ installation, Echo Evolution, 1999, was having a few technical problems, but even with the glitches it’s clear that the enclosed space is an intriguing laboratory. Boundary Functions, 1998 and Deep Walls, 2003 (both by Scott Snibbe) introduce the show, and the pair is a great introduction to what waits beyond. I explored the former (it takes two, or more, to get it going) and discovered that “my space,” defined by lines projected from above, dissolved when (after asking for permission) I gingerly touched the person nearest to me. Deep Walls reminds me of the opening graphics in television’s Mad Men, and further back than that, the early ‘80s paintings of Robert Longo, whose depictions of black-suited men plummeting earthward I initially saw at MAM. When given the green light, visitors are as unfettered as kids, whirling, jumping, leaping, coming and going, their shadowy images captured on projected grids. I joined in to become a temporary part of the big scrapbook. Brian Knep’s Healing Pool #1, 2003 is a visual wash of organic forms projected onto the floor. A woman standing near me insisted the forms originated underneath the vinyl floor, and was startled when I pointed to the overhead source consisting of custom software, video projectors and video cameras. I’d fallen into the same trap earlier when I asked Knep how the floor and all of its colors were shipped to the museum. “It’s not about the floor,” he said (patiently) while pointing upward. My absolute favorite is Janet Cardiff’s To Touch, 1993, an installation set in a darkened room. The tools are simple: a wooden carpenter’s table, electronic photo cells and, lining the walls, a series of audio speakers. Stroke the table’s worn skin, and snippets of film Noir conversations come forth. It’s a glorious, elegant concept. A twenty-something totally involved in touching and listening remarked that it was like “virtual sex.” I was tuned to Garfield & Turner in The Postman Rings Twice. Snow Mirror (Daniel Rozin) is Goth redefined. Pixeled images of visitors evaporate, ghostly, as if being carried off by the colder-than-ice Snow Queen projected onto silk. There is an oriental aura here, something akin to Mishima’s novel Spring Snow, where time ultimately crushes the Deep Walls, 2003 by Scott Snibbe physical. His Peg Mirror is less frightening by far, but of the two works, I much prefer the ghostly. Three abstract painterly projections by Camille Utterback define the end point of the exhibit. to fruition. She told me that one of her works is installed in a Tokyo hotel lobby, and yes, I ended my visit in the Baumgartshe has sold the concept to collectors. Comparisons are wearisome, but it’s ner east wing, pausing a moment clear that she’s been influenced by the likes of Jackson Pollack, Joan Mitchell to consider the day’s experience. and other painters of the abstract expressionist ilk. I hate to admit it, but even As I gazed at the lake, the glassy at this point in the exhibit, I found myself checking the wall to see what kind windows caught the reflection of a of stretchers she used. Old habits die hard. segment of the Brise wings unfurlBut where does “beauty” fit in? When I stand before a sublimely painted ing overhead. VS landscape, an elegant sculpture or photograph, I’m aware that the work is an
Rozin’s”peg Mirror”
Vital culture | V ital Source | ART | 33
Vital culture music reviews The Celebrated Workingman • Herald The Dickens The Bus Stop Label • myspace.com/thecelebratedworkingman
P u t ting a sp ar kling veneer on struggles and giving them buoyancy takes chutzpah. Adversity in music has mostly been relegated to the sad, dark corners of the mope-ish and the forlorn, with abundant minor chords and enough terrible renditions of proverbs to make even a schoolteacher blush. T he Celebrated Workingman’s Herald The Dickens is a joyful example that ups and downs can be positively highspirited. The almost non-existent minor chord, exuberant use of slide-guitar and glockenspiel, shared vocal duties and driving percussion contradict the words prominently and emotively displayed by front man Mark Waldoch. “Now, I’m no bird who’s battered …you’ll get better offers / I’m your worst, and I’m rehearsed,” Waldoch announces on “Islands,” his Morrissey-onsteroids vocals displaying no signs of cracking or caving, but retaining the hope that propels each song on the album forward at industrious speeds. Rough times are a powerful catalyst for the driven and triumphant displays of musicians, yet taking those rough times and creating some of the most sparkling indie-pop to grace the Milwaukee musical landscape since the recent likes of Maritime and Testa Rosa is admirable. Not only does it contain the same sparkle, but also it manages to have a bit of brawn behind all the pretty bells and whistles. The band that’s six people strong sounds like it, and then some. – Erin Wolf
Various Artists • Activities Compilation: Volume 1 Activities • myspace.com/activitiesrecordings While college-rock (for lack of a better term) graduated into grunge and alternative-rock in the early ‘90s, Milwaukee has maintained an interesting relationship with the subgenre: the city’s biggest export is s t ill t h e V iole n t Femmes, its most popular record stores are the size of bedrooms and its independent radio stations maintain
refreshing throwback, echoing a citywide love of independent music and its roots – notwithstanding an uneven collection of tracks. For a compilation that features more than 20 local bands, each contributing no more than two songs, Activities is sonically consistent: that is to say, lo-fi as it comes. Whether purposely as a production technique or the result of limited resources (common sense suggests the latter), the results are mixed as to which bands sound charmingly sparse and which just sound unfinished. Farms in Trouble’s “Empty Arrows and Exit Signs” is a wonderful, psychedelic folk romp, and the male-female harmonies of the Candliers’ “Bird Eyes” plays like The Vaselines-meet-Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs. On the other hand, Crappy Dracula barely miss exceptional sleaze-rock with “No Chance with the Mermaid Queen” by cheating themselves with a too-small drum sound. And on the other other hand, “Area Man” by Nothing in that Drawer is simply unlistenable. While the majority of the songs included are rather forgettable, most of them don’t suck, and a few are actually pretty good. That might not seem like high praise, but it’s a claim that most local scenes across the country can’t make. Activities might not stack up against legendary Wisconsin/Milwaukee compilations like Badger-a-go-go, but it certainly holds its own. – Eric Lewin
IfIHadAHiFi • Fame By Proxy Latest Flame Records • ifihadahifi.net Fidelity is a concept by which we measure our pain, to paraphrase John Lennon. For music enthusiasts, there are numerous thresholds: melody, musicianship and production chief among them. In those aspects, Fame By Proxy, Milwaukee band IfIHadAHiFi’s third release proper, is a resounding artistic success. First of all, it’s damn exciting. Virtually every song is a rhythmic treat, with the drums not only laying down some nifty beats, but (in true post-hardcore fashion) actually serving as a lead instrument. Second, it’s well-executed, as opener “Defenestrate Me” demonstrates in tone and template: repetitive phrases tucked within some beautifully captured guitar and bass, overdriven to the max, with drums up the wazoo. Finally, it’s well-crafted. “Paradise by the Paulding Light” is the closest they actually get to full-on fucking a pop hook, otherwise flirting with it for the other 11 tracks. One, “Get Killed, Get Noticed,” is so breakneck and loose it feels like it’s about to just fall apart. Another, “Science Depends On Us,” is downright crafty in its self-realization. With touches of Fugazi (if they’d ever drink and loosen up) and many of Steve Albini’s projects, IfIHadAHiFi show that though they love to dress their music up in glorious noise. Their talents in the three above-mentioned thresholds are just too strong to be denied. – Troy Butero
an army of devoted local listeners. So while Activities Compilation: Volume 1 might play elsewhere as a futile effort to fit ‘88’s sound into ‘08 in another market, its context makes it a
34 | music reviews | Vital Source | vital culture
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music reviews Vital culture John the Savage • Kitchen Voodoo The Bus Stop Label • busstoplabel.com
Si x- p ie c e J o h n t h e Savage ain’t afraid of no ghosts — the ghastly and sinister are this debut full-length’s bread and butter. From Mexican standoff (“Me & the Warden: Standoff”) to murder ballad (“Ballad of a Killman, pt. XI”), it’s thematically dark, and though the vocals are most often indecipherable wailing, the band’s ability to incarnate stories instrumentally and transport listeners to distinct settings is just genius. In “Sinking Ship,” for example, a near-eight minute epic noisy with trumpet, violin pizzicato, accordion and then some, panic pools at the first sight of leakage, the crew yo-ho-hos like rum-filled pirates and the vessel plunges deeper and faster into oblivion. Similarly, piano-driven “Market Day” vividly recalls art squares of Paris and “Dope-Ass Fade from Jose” could have been just another dinner at Chi-Chi’s had the funk guitar and cowbell not keenly come into play. Their musicality isn’t a fluke — Kitchen Voodoo was largely recorded live to capture the spirit of a John the Savage performance. But within that good idea is vulnerability: all opportunity for nuance is lost. Players are on the same plane, all equally determined to be heard. Under relentless uproar, the arrangements suffer. Why blanket over hard work? Had they explored musical dynamics beyond just “loud,” even more of the band’s competence could have shone through. John the Savage may not be particularly restrained in subject matter or sound, but the year-old band has victoriously created its own genre-bending authenticity. Too many cooks or not, Kitchen Voodoo is still spellbinding. Disagree? A plague of locusts is probably already on the way. – Amber L. Herzog
disc, it’s clear that the impression goes beyond a superficial band reference — such a film’s driving sequences across washed-out video-contrast countrysides would be a perfect complement to the dreamy soundscapes offered in tracks like the 11-minute “Shelter.” The compositions follow the Godspeed template of theme, variation, but mostly theme. The band establishes a mood and slowly adds layer upon layer as they build to a crescendo a few minutes down the road. Guitars interweave with violin, bells and each other, weaving a patchwork quilt of sound the listener can wrap themselves in to keep warm when the car heater conks out in December. Canyons of Static hail from West Bend, a town with red state politics and poor economy (one of my most recent memories of hanging out there involved punks who had government-issue ham in their kitchen) that doesn’t exactly seem like a breeding ground for quality shoegaze. Then again, Milwaukee isn’t exactly known as a shoegazer town either, yet we have plenty of excellent examples (Brief Candles and White Wrench Conservatory, in addition to the Canyons). But maybe it’s more appropriate than we’d think — after all, the hypnotizing rhythms and melodies on the disappearance are wintery and desolate, yet small-town cozy. In that respect, Canyons of Static are more Wisconsin than zombie-controlled Britain after all. – DJ Hostettler
Canyons of Static • the disappearance
Former Airline Records • formerairlinerecords.com The impression one gets from Canyons of Static is that their instrumental shoegaze jams would be perfect for a stylized horror film about hyper-fast zombies infected with rage. Sure, that’s a fancier (and nerdier) way of saying that they sound like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but after repeated spins of the disappearance, the new Canyons
vital culture | Vital Source | music reviews | 35
Vital culture record releases NOVEMBER 4 Big Boi Sir Luscious Leftfoot … Son of Chico Dusty LaFace Sarah Brightman A Christmas Symphony EMI Chris Cornell Scream Suretone/Interscope
Mavis Staples Hope At The Hideout Anti-
Missy Eliott Block Party Atlantic
Travis Ode To J. Smith Red Telephone Box
The End of the World French Exit Flameshovel
Warship Supply & Depend Vagrant
Enya And Winter Came… Reprise
NOVEMBER 11
Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes Eye-Legacy Koch
Alaska In Winter Holiday Milan
Ludacris Theater of the Mind Def Jam
The All-American Rejects When the World Comes Down Interscope
Dido Safe Trip Home Arista
Brandy Human Epic
Fall Out Boy Folie á Deux Island
The Bronx The Bronx III Original Signal
Gringo Star All Y’All My Anxious Mouth
Tracy Chapman Our Bright Future Atlantic
Shiny Toy Guns Season Of Poison Universal Motown
Deborah Cox The Promise Decca Recording Group
Ricky Martin 17 Sony International Seal Soul Warner
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NOVEMBER 25
Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters Christmas Classic Vanguard
The Fireman (Paul McCartney) Electric Arguments ATO
T-Pain Thr33 Ringz Konvict Muzik
Sammy Hagar Cosmic Universal Fashion Roadrunner
November 18
Mudvayne The New Game Epic
Daryl Hall & John Oates Live at the Troubadour Shout! Factory
Nickelback Dark Horse Roadrunner
Tom Jones 24 Hours S-Curve
The Priests s/t RCA Victor
The Killers Day and Age Island
David Byrne & Brian Eno Everything That Happens Will Happen Today Todo Mundo
Chris Botti Live In Boston Columbia
Supersuckers Get It Together Mid Fi Recordings
Billy Ray Cyrus Back To Tennessee Lyric Street
Scott Weiland Happy in Galoshes Softdrive
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funny page news + Views drawing from memory
get your war on
>>by dwellephant
>>by david rees
vital source | news + views | funny page | 37
wild >> words by matt
The Milwaukee Music Scene™: The Final Chapter PART 1 If you’re a frequent victim of the Milwaukee County Transit system, you’re faced with countless indignities while riding the bus: hostile passengers, inane and never-ending cell phone conversations, a smell that could only be described as a mixture of B.O. and quiet desperation. Yet it seems to me that the most insidious evil one encounters is Transit TV, a dumping ground for cringe-worthy “moving entertainment” (I’m looking at you, Clever Cleaver Brothers), as well as a warm, fuzzy blanket for mouth breathers who like to play along with the Pat Sajak puzzle games. Mostly, Transit TV is nothing more than a series of out-of-context quotes from such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin, Martin Luther King, Jr., and, um, Steven Wright. Recently, one caught my eye. “I think knowing what you cannot do is more important than knowing what you can do. In fact, that’s good taste.”— Lucille Ball
the first time in three years, I find I have little to say. Looking back at my past “Milwaukee Music Scene™” columns, maybe I never did. If I could offer up any sort of analysis, however, it would be this: the MMS™ is fine, just as wonderful and lousy as it’s always been. The recent rise of Turner Hall and the Pabst Theatre has been something of a mixed blessing, bringing in toptier indie bands that normally would have avoided Milwaukee while at the same time leaving local joints like the Cactus Club and Mad Planet booking the same local bands every other week (I’m looking at you, John the Savage). At any rate, the scene seems to be in need of a big change, as a lot of the old musical mainstays – as well as the folks behind the scenes – are getting a little long in the tooth. Put simply, things seem to be running on fumes. Or does it just seem this way because I’m getting old? This month’s guest music editor, DJ Hostettler, knows a thing or two about getting old while still playing in a band. His longtime group, IfIHadAHiFi, has a song (and an excellent accompanying video) called “Success! Success! Success!” that touches on the very subject:
Putting aside the fact that I’ve never cared for Lucy – placing her in the “Just Don’t Get It” category along with hardcore animal pornography and John McGivern – it’s a quote that really struck “Opportunity is winding down/no one hears you a nerve. For the past 18 (!) years, I’ve defined when you’re in your 30s now myself, in one way or another, by my band, Holy This gravity can only pull you down/There’s no Mary Motor Club. Though I never really admitted shame in desperation” it out loud (talking about your band is never in good taste), it’s defined me just the same. But in I suppose they’re right: there is no shame in the last few months or so, I’ve taken the former trying. So rock on, Milwaukee, keep up the good Mrs. Desi Arnaz’s advice and owned up to the work, and don’t let the things you can’t do pull fact that being in a band is something I’m not you down. That is, after all, the definition of good very good at: I’m a terrible singer, a hopeless taste. guitar player and a mediocre songwriter at best. So instead of subjecting myself (and others) to PART 2 further torment, I recently decided to put my You know what? Fuck all that. You want to know band aside and concentrate on things I’m actu- my take on the state of the scene? It sucks. ally good at, like, I don’t know … needlepoint? What’s more, I’m glad I’m out of it. And that HiFi All of this is a long way of saying that here lyric? Oh, it’s true all right, though I would argue we are at VITAL’s annual music issue, and for that in Milwaukee, no one hears you, period. It
38 | subversions | Vital Source | vital Living
doesn’t make a lick of difference whether you’re 20, 30, or 48, because the only people that are going to give a shit about your band are your friends and girlfriends, and even they’ll piss and moan if you don’t put them on the guest list. Is the idea of a bunch of slowly graying adults playing basements and barely-attended clubs inherently ridiculous? In a world of few absolutes and rampant relativism, let me just come out and say it: Yes, yes it is. Give up now. Feel the shame. So here’s to you, Milwaukee Music Scene™. Thanks for nothing. Take good care of yourself and look ahead to that bright, shining future that almost certainly doesn’t lie ahead of you. Postscript: My younger brother recently called me from his new home in Scobey, Montana. It’s in the middle of nowhere, ten minutes from the U.S./ Canadian border, population 1,000. Faced with little in the way of entertainment, he joined a local dart league and named his team the Holy Mary Motor Club. My band, he told me, would live on, albeit in dart-team form. I’m still not sure what to make of that. VS VITAL’s Editor in Chief, Jon Anne Willow, would like to counter that, from a purely existential standpoint, pretty much all effort is futile. In the end, we each die alone and take nothing with us. Jon Anne has also known Matt for many years and has believed for a while now that he was heading for that aspirations-vs.-reality wall most young artists collide with eventually. This piece confirms her suspicions. So rather than beat the snot out of Matt next time you see him, buy him a drink and tell him about your own failed, forestalled or otherwise unrealized dreams. Misery loves company. Matt Wild is ¼ of the rock and roll band Holy Mary Motor Club.
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puzzle page Vital source
CryptoQuip The CryptoQuip 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!
Crossword
Across 1 Sound of frustration 5 Ancient Greek colonnade
Sudoku
vitalsourcemag.com
9 Napkin, of sorts 12 It. river 13 Stags 15 Ice sheet 16 Busting a gut?
19 Response 20 Primps 21 Foreword, for short 24 Little bit 25 WWW address
To solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and box must contain the numbers 1-9.
Clues: V=M M=A 27 Suit material 30 WW II arena 33 Actor’s line 35 Remove water from a towel 37 Preserves 38 Dine 39 Clavell’s ___-Pan 41 Fiddle-de-___ 42 Unlock, in verse 43 Blunder 44 Acquiesce 46 Subway or arcade coin 48 GI’s address 49 Fable writer 51 Actor Beatty 52 Literary collection 55 Hoity-toity sorts 57 Marked test papers 60 Most recent 64 Unable to frown? 67 Moon goddess 68 Get ready to drive 69 Gunk 70 Young lamb 71 Labels 72 Spanish direction
Down 1 Casa chamber 2 Persia, now 3 Wildebeests 4 Audience mirth reaction to a comedian, at times? 5 Dress clothes 6 Summer shade 7 Charitable group (Abbr.) 8 Above 9 Brunette’s funny offering? 10 Promissory notes 11 Cot 14 Big ___, Calif. 15 Dog biter 17 Biddy 18 Asian holiday 22 Electrical fix 23 Bobby of hockey 25 Seize 26 Guffaws, to the max?
28 John Creasey’s detective 29 Compass pt. 31 Recorded 32 Harbinger 33 Between ports 34 Greek letter 36 Acquire 40 ___ Khan 45 Sharp curve 47 Comedian’s platform 50 Sea anemones, e.g. 53 Astronaut’s insignia 54 Commercials 56 Scrooge’s cry 57 Paste 58 Newt 59 Musical group 61 Heroic poem 62 Name for a Dalmatian 63 Sort 64 Deli sandwich 65 Grassland 66 Haul
october Crossword Answers
vital Living | Vital Source | puzzle page | 39