Wisconsin Gazette - August 13, 2015

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AltWeekly Afo Best Cover 2015 2015 Lansin g Stat eCover JDesign, o u r n a lDesign, AltWeekly Award-winner Best

Fighting the stream Will music streaming save an industry or drown its artists? page 26

August 13, 2015 | Vol. 6 No. 19

Lions roar into the spotlight pages 4-5

16 Petfest Petfest returns to the Summerfest grounds Aug. 29.

6 Lawsuit over pipelines The National Wildlife Federation says the Dept. of Transportation has failed to protect inland waters from oil pipelines.

23 Not just root beers Sprecher is spreading the word about its high-quality beers and sodas, as the company celebrates three decades in Milwaukee.

35 A teen, in her own words The Diary of a Teenage Girl isn’t designed to make viewers comfortable, says its director.

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News with a twist Location, location, LOCATION

security officer at a supermarket, accordIn 1976, the National ing to police records.

Arboretum in Washing- When officers ran ton, D.C., received a tree Ritter’s license plate, from Japanese bonsai they found two warrants master Masaru Yamaki in for his arrest. Ritter hit celebration of the Ameri- two Philadelphia police can bicentennial. It wasn’t vehicles in his attempt to until 2001, when Yamaki’s evade police. grandsons came to visit the tree, that the arboretum learned of its amazing history: The now 390-year-old tree was within a 4-mile radius of where the atomic bomb landed on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. “It was up against a wall,” Jack Sustic, Less deadly, but the bonsai’s curator, told are they silent?

Shreddies, the UK-based The Washington Post. “It must have been the wall company that created fartthat shielded it from the filtering underwear, is now applying its odor-absorbblast.” ing Filtrex technology to jeans and pajamas. “You Failed cover up A New Jersey man want- can wear your Shreddies ed for stealing $21 worth Jeans and Pyjamas with of underwear led police your regular underwear, on a two-hour car chase in team them with a pair of two states. Robert Ritter, Shreddies pants for double 54, was accused of steal- protection, or if you’re feeling a pack of underwear ing brave, why not skip the as a well as a package of underwear completely!?

T-shirts and of shoving a You’ll never have to worry

WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

| August 13, 2015

WiGWAG about those moments again,” the company boasted in a press release. The jury’s out over whether the products can also muffle the sounds associated with passing gas.

Valuable memories

The Franklin County, Kentucky, Sheriff’s Office has made two drug arrests since putting a ‘report your competition’ post on Facebook. Responders can remain anonymous while turning over rival drug dealer’s addresses, cell phone numbers and hours of operation. The strategy, which is bringing in information as well as national attention, has been adopted by other police jurisdictions. Millions of people saw the post after the rapper Ludacris put it up on Instagram.

Walker punked

Gov. Scott Walker was punked at a pizza restaurant while he was cam-

paigning for the Republican presidential nomination in New Hampshire. Two 20-somethings enthusiastically confronted Walker and asked him to pose with them behind a homemade sign that read, “Walker 4 president.” But as Walker put his arms around Tyler McFarland, 23, and Giselle Hart, 20, they flipped the sign. The new sign Walker posed with looked like a large fake check for $900 million from Charles and David Koch.

Wrong NUMBER

A Wisconsin dentist is dealing with angry phone calls because he has the same last name as the Minnesota dentist accused of killing a protected lion in Zimbabwe. Mathew Palmer of Janesville says he has received dozens of calls since officials in Zimbabwe identified a Minnesota dentist — Walter Palmer — as the American hunter who killed the beloved lion.

Someone even signed him up for a computer-auto-

By Lisa Neff and Louis Weisberg mated messaging service that calls him every hour to recite cat facts. The 40-year-old says he’s since changed his phone number.

He also emphasizes that he’s not a hunter.

the West Point grad, his husband Larry LennoxChoate, also a West Point grad, threw him into the street and gave him a beat down. “He left covered in his own blood with his tail between his legs … like the coward loser he is,” Larry Revising history Texas recently changed Lennox-Choate posted on its state academic guide- Facebook. “This guy might lines, taking all mention not pick two guys who of the Ku Klux Klan and went through Plebe Boxing Jim Crow laws out of his- next time,” he added. The tory books. This comes at Lennox-Choates were the a time when the political first same-sex couple to be right has intimidated the married at West Point.

College Board into adopting new history curriculum Him tarzan guidelines that minimize A man who claimed slavery, violence toward to be Tarzan has been Native Americans and the arrested after he allegedly growing influence of social climbed a tree and tried to conservatives. Instead, get into the monkey exhibit there is increased cover- at a Southern California age of World War II battle zoo. A zookeeper called 911 victories. to report that a shirtless man plastered in mud had climbed about 20 feet into Wrong victim A gay-basher picked a tree at the bird exhibit at the wrong victim when the Santa Ana Zoo. Police he attacked Daniel Len- Cpl. Anthony Bertagna told nox-Choate at a Manhat- City News Service that the tan newsstand. After the man was high on methambasher sucker-punched phetamine.

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Cecil’s death spotlights damage of trophy hunting

By Louis Weisberg

when asked by reporters about Palmer.

Large animals have always held humans in thrall. Cave drawings, among the earliest examples of human art, commonly feature figures of bison, horses, aurochs (an extinct wild ox) and giant deer. Nature TV programs and zoos are more popular than ever, and the biggest and rarest animals are always the star attractions.

Lions, elephants and other “charismatic megafauna,” as they are known, draw nature tourists from all over the globe to Africa, where they pump millions into economies that badly need it.

But there’s a dark side to human interest. The majority of megafauna that inhabited the world when humans appeared has gone extinct.

Early humans needed the flesh and skins of large animals to survive. But now such hunts are thrill kills, such as the brutal slaying of Cecil, a black-maned lion that was not only the star attraction at Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, but also part of an Oxford University study to save African lions from extinction.

In fact, Cecil’s fate was discovered by the GPS device on the collar he wore as part of that project.

Hit with the double whammy of habitation loss and wealthy hunters who’ve paid up to $1 million for the privilege of killing rare, exotic animals, African lions are in steep decline. Only about 20,000 of them remain in the wild today, down from 200,000 in the 1960s. Activists are pressuring the U.S. government to place the African lion on the endangered species list.

Elephants and rhinos are faring even worse than lions. There is only one male great white rhino left in the world, and he’s under 24-hour guard.

Unfortunately, in the world of trophy hunters, the rarer a species becomes, the more hunters are willing to pay for the thrill of killing it.

Good from tragedy

Staff writer

P h o t o : G l e n S t u bb e / S ta r T r i b u n e v i a A P

Protestors leave signs and stuffed animals in front of Dr. Walter Palmer’s dental practice on July 29 in a makeshift shrine for Cecil the lion.

Cecil’s slaughter

Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer reportedly paid two guides $55,000 to lure Cecil from the Hwange National Park — a preserve. Palmer, who did not have a license for the hunt, then shot Cecil with a crossbow. He tracked the wounded, suffering lion for 40 hours before shooting, decapitating and skinning it for “trophies,” the euphemism hunters use for remains of their quarry.

Cecil — large, exotically beautiful and bestowed with a human name — captured the world’s fascination. His clandestine killing by a rich American sparked global outrage. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said in a statement that he should be extradited to Zimbabwe, where he should be charged, tried, convicted and “preferably, hanged.”

Forced to shutter his dental practice and

close his social media accounts, which featured numerous pictures of Palmer holding the corpses of large and sometimes endangered species, Palmer went into hiding. As of press time, Zimbabwe was trying to extradite him to face poaching charges. One man in Zimbabwe faces criminal charges for helping Palmer kill the lion and another was detained but later released.

The Safari Club International, which promotes big-game hunting, suspended Palmer’s membership and called for a full and thorough investigation. The organization, in a statement to the press, said, “Those who intentionally take wildlife illegally should be prosecuted and punished to the maximum extent allowed by law.”

There were calls for Minnesota’s board of dentistry to revoke Palmer’s license for conduct unbecoming his profession.

Protesters created a shrine for Cecil at the entryway to Palmer’s office and carried signs reading, “Let the hunter be hunted.”

“The man disgusts me,” said protester Jenna Blunt of Minneapolis. “I hope his life is ruined, that he’s miserable for the rest of his days.”

Cecil wasn’t Palmer’s first illegal kill. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to making false statements to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services after killing a black bear in Wisconsin outside the authorized hunting zone, according to court documents. Palmer was sentenced to probation for a year and ordered to pay a fine of nearly $3,000.

“It seems like Wisconsin let him off easy,” said Madison animal rights advocate James Harris, who has protested hunting in Wisconsin. “I think the state could do more to protect its wildlife and prosecute illegal hunting.”

Palmer had other ethical baggage. He paid $127,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by a woman who once worked as a receptionist for his dental practice. “Karma’s a bitch,” she said

In the wake of Cecil’s slaughter, numerous airlines, pressured by petitions signed by hundreds of thousands of people, announced they would no longer transport the remains of big game animals.

President Barack Obama recently issued a ban on the importation of elephant ivory, and activists called on the United States to go further and ban bringing “big game trophies” into the nation.

But experts fear the killings are unstoppable. Shortly after Cecil’s slaughter, it was revealed that another American doctor — a gynecologist — had illegally slaughtered a lion on the Hwange preserve in April. The thirst for Western dollars in countries where money is hard to come by will always provide an entry point for rich, determined hunters.

Some African officials argue that the large fees paid by hunters to kill the animals are put back into local conservation efforts to save imperiled species.

But in many such hunts, only the guides and landowners pocket money. And given the corruption in many African nations, only an estimated 3 to 5 percent of revenues from trophy hunting is shared with local communities, according to studies.

What money does find its way back to the people pales in comparison to the renewable revenue brought in by wildlife enthusiasts who visit the continent to watch and photograph the animals. Those non-violent safaris bring billions of dollars to Africa in a sustainable way.

Kenya, for example, banned trophy hunting and saw a rise in ecotourism as a result.

Kenya’s success encouraged Botswana to also change its trophy hunting policies.

Zimbabwe imposed a moratorium on lion hunts amid the outrage over Cecil’s death, but lifted it 10 days later.

Cecil’s death has not been in vain. It shined a spotlight on trophy hunting and helped to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to support Oxford University’s Wildlife Conservation Unit, whose researchers were tracking Cecil’s movements.

More than $150,000 was donated within 24 hours after Jimmy Kimmel made a tearful plea on his late-night TV show for funding to assist WildCRU’s conservation efforts. A pair of U.S. philanthropists vowed to help the Oxford researchers raise over 1 million in U.S. dollars.

Even plans to raise funds with a Cecil the lion Beanie Baby are in the works.

“We have to seize this moment where we can all make a difference,” American philanthropist Tom Kaplan said in a statement, adding that if the “death of Cecil can lead to the saving of many more lions, then some good can come from tragedy.”

WiG reporter Lisa Neff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

| August 13, 2015

‘Lion on the loose’ sparks concerns about exotic pets

By Louis Weisberg and Lisa Neff Staff writers

At the same time Cecil dominated global news, a mysterious lion caught the attention of Wisconsinites. The Milwaukee Police Department received multiple calls from people reporting a lion-like creature slinking through riverside neighborhoods on the north and east sides of the city. The MPD confirmed that an officer saw some type of animal in a ravine near North 31st Street and West Cameron Avenue.

Authorities — police officers armed with rifles and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources agents carrying tranquilizer guns — set up a dragnet, which the animal apparently evaded. Authorities later placed traps.

Police Chief Ed Flynn said it was theoretically possible a wild cat made its way to Milwaukee from northern Wisconsin.

About a week after the initial sighting of the lion in Milwaukee, a similar creature was spotted in Beloit and then in Grafton.

Some experts believe the animal is a cougar that found its way into southeastern Wisconsin from the northern plains by traveling along rivers. Human encroachment in the form of everything from farms to shopping centers to residential development has left cougars without adequate areas to hunt for prey.

Sightings of cougars and other wild animals have become common in big cities as far east as New York. The police shooting of a cougar near Skokie, Illinois, sparked outrage several years ago. Chicagoans were amused in 2007 when a coyote wandered into a downtown sub shop and plopped itself into a cooler for a nap.

Reports of the MKE Lion mostly made Milwaukeeans giddy, far more amused than panicked.

The animal got its own Twitter account Corcoran — @Milwaukee_Lion — and rapidly gained followers, including Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, the MPD, Visit Milwaukee, the city of Milwaukee and Pounce Panther, the mascot for the Milwaukee

Panthers.

The Stone Creek Cafe sold cookies decorated with a lion, designers started selling variations of “I Survived #MKELion” T-shirts and the Milwaukee County Zoo, in a tweet, joked, “We’re not sure what’s running around the city, but all of our lions are safe and sound.”

The Milwaukee sightings caught the attention of international newspapers and news networks. A promotion for an episode of NBC’s Today, said, “FBI director declares ISIS a bigger threat than Al Qaeda, Trump prepares to visit the border and latest on search for MKE Lion.”

The MPD, in a news release about the Milwaukee lion, said, “It remains a possibility that the cat is an escaped exotic pet and, with all of the media attention, the owner is reluctant to come forward.”

Moving against exotic pets

Jill Carnegie of Kings Sanctuary and Retreat in Wisconsin feels certain the animal is a mountain lion and that it had been a pet. She said she has been on standby with Milwaukee County Animal Control and “if there is a happy ending to this story the cat will live out its days here at the sanctuary.”

“It is a mountain lion, and I can tell it was a pet that was released, possibly from gun violence in Milwaukee,” Carnegie said.

“If the owner was killed, others could have turned it loose. Or it escaped or the owner could no longer care for it.”

Milwaukee has an ordinance prohibiting people from keeping animals known to attack or injure people or domestic animals. But Wisconsin is one of six states where keeping a big cat — a lion-like animal — as a pet is not against the law.

Alabama, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia also lack state regulations against exotic pet ownership.

Last year, state Rep. Warren Petryk, a Republican from Eleva, pushed for a ban on the breeding and possession of exotic animals, including big cats.

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Petryk cited a number of incidents in Wisconsin, including the confiscation of a baboon in a basement in Dane County, the discovery of an alligator in an apartment in Beloit and the injury of a child bit by a lion cub at a pet store in Baraboo.

The bill had the backing of multiple animal welfare groups, including Born Free and The Humane Society of the United States, but it did not gain legislative traction.

This year, state Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, is pushing a bill that would prohibit people from owning dangerous exotic animals, including lions, tigers, polar bears, gorillas and alligators.

“Wisconsin is becoming a magnet for people who want to open a roadside zoo,” said Melissa Tedrowe, Wisconsin state director for the Humane Society of the United States. “We do know there are crocodiles and cheetahs and boa constrictors and tigers in people’s homes. When they get too large, they get released.”

Tedrowe is confidant that Wanggaard will get his bill passed.

“Sen. Wanggaard is a very strong and respected legislator,” she said. “We’re hopeful that the bill that comes forward is robust and does not include exceptions.”

In a memo seeking co-sponsors for his bill, Wanggaard said that the measure was inspired by the Milwaukee lion hunt, as well as a 2013 incident in which police and the Racine Zoological Society discovered nearly half-a-dozen rattlesnakes, two alligators, a crocodile, an alligator, a snapping turtle and a Gila monster in a Kenosha residence. The senator said escaped exotic pets tax limited municipal resources and put emergency responders and citizens in danger.

“These animals pose a significant threat to the safety of Wisconsin residents,” Wanggaard, a former police officer, wrote in the memo. “This is common sense legislation that will keep citizens, law enforcement, and emergency responders safe.”

State residents need a license from the DNR to possess a wild animal that’s native

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to Wisconsin. But they can own non-native animals such as a lion without a license, unless the animal is endangered or threatened or has been deemed a harmful wild animal, such as a cougar or bear, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau.

Wanggaard’s bill would prohibit the private possession, propagation and sale of dangerous exotic animals, including nonnative big cats such as lions and tigers; nonnative bears, including brown bears, panda bears and polar bears; apes, including gorillas, chimpanzees and gibbons; and crocodilians, including alligators, crocodiles and caimans. Vets, zoos, circuses, and federally licensed research facilities and wildlife sanctuaries could still legally possess such creatures.

People who own exotic animals would be allowed to keep the creatures if they register the animals with their municipality. They would have to inform police if their animals escape.

Karen Sparapani, executive director of the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission, which is working to capture the creature roaming Milwaukee, said she hadn’t seen the bill but supports banning private possession of large mammals.

“Most people with exotic animals, especially smaller reptiles, are responsible,” Sparapani said. “But it’s these large mammals regular people can’t provide a quality of life to. They’re simply being born for people’s vanity and that’s wrong.”

Meanwhile, MPD urged the public not to intervene in attempts to capture any lion on the loose in southeast Wisconsin: “As the media draws more attention to this story, it also appears that people are willing to take greater risks to find the animal on their own. The public is asked not to endanger themselves and to leave it to wildlife experts to photograph or capture the cat.”

A civilian who tried to intervene in the hunt shot a pit bull he mistook for a lion.

WISCONSIN STATE FAIR FOOD · ANIMALS MUSIC · RIDES

AUGUST 6 - 16

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Group to sue U.S. DOT over oil pipelines

By Lisa Neff Staff writer

The National Wildlife Federation recently filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Department of Transportation for the agency’s failure for more than 20 years to protect people, fish, wildlife and communities from oil pipelines in the nation’s inland waters, from the Great Lakes to the Yellowstone River.

The legal action carries nationwide implications. NWF alleges that due to the agency’s decades-long oversight failures, every U.S. oil pipeline that intersects navigable water is operating illegally.

Specifically, the group maintains that the DOT has failed to meet its obligations P HOTO : N R D C under the Oil Pollution Act, enacted in 1990 after the Exxon Valdez oil spill disas- Oil on the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. ter. The law prohibits the transportation of oil through pipelines on land or in the other locations, has been responsible for water, unless oil pipeline owners or oper- 1,100 pipeline spills between 1999 and ators receive government approval that 2013. they have safety plans that are adequate to Pipelines through waterways present a respond to a worst-case oil spill. unique set of challenges. Rivers have a Pipeline spills, leaks and ruptures are penchant for scouring, which can uncover not uncommon across the nation. Between pipelines buried beneath the riverbed and 1995 and 2014, there were 10,844 pipe- expose them to forces that cause spills and line incidents causing 371 fatalities, 1,395 leaks. Spills in waterways are hard to clean injuries and more than $6.3 billion in prop- up due to currents, ice cover and debris. erty damage, according to the Pipeline and Spills are devastating to fish and wildlife Hazardous Materials Safety Administra- and contaminate the food chain from bottion. tom to top.

Just one company, Enbridge Energy, The vast network of domestic oil pipewhich operates in Wisconsin and many lines cross inland bodies of water with a width of at least 100 feet at 5,110 locations in the United States, according to the DOT’s pipeline safety administration.

Significant spills occurred in rivers and waters in California, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Michigan, site of the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history.

Enbridge is responsible for the Michigan spill. The company operates two pipelines at the confluence of Lakes Michigan and

Huron, known as the Straits of Mackinac — a location that University of Michigan scientists have called the worst possible place for an oil spill in the Great Lakes due to the strong, unpredictable currents and potential for ice cover.

“The oil pipeline industry’s track record of spills, accidents and disasters underscores the need for iron-clad protections,” said Mike Shriberg, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Regional Center. “The federal government needs to do its job.”

The NWF wants the DOT to abide by the law, issue regulations for pipelines in water and require every owner and operator of an oil pipeline in navigable water to submit a safety response plan for consideration.

The notice of intent to sue is the first legal action in the effort to protect the Great Lakes from the two pipelines under the Straits of Mackinac. The NWF’s effort to highlight the risk posed by those pipelines includes filming underwater footage of the pipelines in 2013 that showed them suspended over the lakebed, some original supports broken away and some sections of the suspended pipelines covered in debris.

“The law does not allow oil to flow through a pipeline running through an inland navigable waterway unless the U.S. Department of Transportation first approves an oil spill response plan. The Department of Transportation’s failure to even require such plans therefore is a huge oversight,” said Neil Kagan, senior counsel for the NWF. “The U.S. Department of Transportation needs to act with urgency and purpose to provide the long-overdue protection of our country’s rivers and lakes mandated by the Oil Pollution Act.”

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Minnesota boosts minimum wage, Wisconsin falls farther behind From AP and WiG reports

Minnesota on Aug. 1 vaulted past Illinois, Michigan and South Dakota to gain the highest minimum wage in the Midwestern region — $9 per hour.

The dollar-per-hour bump is the second of a three-stage increase adopted in 2014, when the state had one of the lowest minimum wages in the region. Next August, the wage will rise again to $9.50 and it will go up with inflation in following years.

For now, this step gives Minnesota the highest minimum wage of any state away from the east or west coasts. South Dakota, Illinois and Michigan rank closest to Minnesota, with minimum wages of $8.50, $8.25 and $8.15, respectively.

Wisconsin state Sen. Jennifer Shilling, a Democrat whose district is just across the Mississippi River from Minnesota, bemoaned the lack of interest from Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans in Madison

to raise the state’s $7.25 per hour minimum wage.

“While states like Minnesota are raising family wages and growing their middle class, Republicans in Wisconsin have taken our state in the opposite direction,” Shilling said in an email. “Despite the national economic recovery, working families in Wisconsin continue to struggle as a result of declining wages, a shrinking middle class and massive cuts to schools and local communities.”

When Walker announced his presidential campaign earlier this summer, he ridiculed Democrats pushing for minimumwage increases. “The left claims they’re for American workers and they’ve got lame ideas, things like minimum wage,” Walker told Fox News in an interview. “We need to talk about how we get people skills and qualifications they need to get jobs that go beyond minimum wage.”

GLSEN: Many school districts lack comprehensive bullying policies Nine in 10 school districts in the United States lack a policy explicitly banning the harassment and bullying of LGBT students.

And nearly 30 percent of school districts in the United States have no policy against bullying of any kind, according to a report from the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, a nonprofit that advocates for education reform to improve school climates for students and educators.

The report, released as teachers and administrators are preparing classrooms for the 2015–16 school year, involved a review of anti-bullying policies in 13,181 school districts and also a study of state laws dealing with the issue.

GLSEN found that only 20 percent of districts require the reporting of bullying incidents, and many districts fail to comply with state law on the issue.

GLSEN executive director Eliza Byard said the report “illustrates the gap that can emerge between the intentions of a law and the actual implementation — arguably the most critical component of the passage of any law.

There remain far too many school districts that have failed to institute policy protections, even in states (that) require them by law. As a result, these schools continue to fail our students.”

According to GLSEN’s research, about 3.1 percent of Wisconsin school districts have policies enumerating protections from bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

About 43.5 percent have policies specific to sexual orientation.

The report found 48 districts in Wisconsin — 11.3 percent of those in the state — have policies requiring accountability in dealing with reports of bullying.

— Lisa Neff

‘People aren’t flying to New York to spend this money. They’re spending it locally.

That’s what drives our economy forward. It’s not trickle-down. It’s consumer spending.’

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton said the higher wage is about “allowing people to earn a better living through their work. We’re not talking about handouts here. We’re talking about rewarding people who work with a better income, which

makes them better citizens.”

People working full time at Minnesota’s higher minimum wage could earn $2,000 more per year. But Dayton said their overall income would still leave them too close to the federal poverty line.

“People aren’t flying out to New York to spend this money. They’re spending it in their local economy,” Dayton told the AP. “That’s what drives our economy forward.

It’s not trickle-down economics. It’s consumer spending.”

Small Minnesota employers — those with annual gross revenue below $500,000 — still are permitted to pay workers less, with their minimum wage matching the federal minimum. Businesses can also pay trainees at the lower rate for 90 days and teens can be paid less.

Washington and Oregon have the nation’s highest minimum wages at $9.47 and $9.25 per hour.

MADISON from prior page

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Peace activists march to protest drones

By Lisa Neff Staff writer

Joy First has been arrested about 35 times.

“I think that many,” says the Mount Horeb resident, who has been active in the peace movement since about 2002 and the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

And she’s willing to risk arrest again in act of civil resistance at Volk Field at Camp Douglas in Wisconsin. Volk is the site of the Tactical Unmanned Aerial System facility, a $4.5-million operation housing the RQ-7B Shadow Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and a platoon of operators, according to base information.

Aug. 18–25, First plans to join other peace activists in a 90-mile march from the Dane County jail in Madison to Volk.

The activists plan to walk about 12–16 miles a day and spend their nights at churches, homes or campsites.

On the eve of the march, a public assembly will be held at Edgewood College in Madison.

The organizing groups are Chicagobased Voices for Creative Nonviolence and the Wisconsin Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars.

For more than three years, the coalition has been holding monthly vigils at the gates to Volk. The first vigil was held in December 2011.

The Shadow drones at Volk are not

armed but, First said, “They are part of the bigger picture of U.S. warfare. Without the Shadow, they wouldn’t be able to use the Predator.”

The RQ-7 Shadow UAV is equipped with a camera and used for reconnaissance and surveillance; the Predator is a larger aircraft with weaponry.

The Shadow is being used by ground troops to support convoy operations, field artillery and troops in contact with enemy forces, according to the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs.

In August 2010, the Wisconsin National Guard at Volk launched the first test of the Shadow, which can reach heights of 15,000 feet and has a range of about 125 kilometers.

In December 2013, military leaders gathered with elected officials for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Volk to celebrate the construction of the unmanned aircraft facility. The Shadow, the speakers emphasized, would be deployed to help save the lives of U.S. servicemembers.

Activists decided to begin the August march at the jail to make a connection between the violence overseas and the violence committed by militarized U.S. police forces. At a short program at the jail at 10 a.m. on Aug. 18, the marchers will hear from representatives of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“We’re really trying to draw the con-

nection by walking from the jail to the field that what the U.S. military is doing to brown people on the other side of the world is connected to what the police are doing to black people in this country,” said First.

She added, “People are coming from all over the country to participate in this walk. And it really does feel like a family reunion.”

“These drones, we believe, are illegal and criminal,” said First.

“Most of the people who go are involved in a lot of different anti-war activity,” First said. The protesters assemble at about 3:30 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month.

Occasionally the protesters go beyond the gates. Demonstrators risked arrest to walk on the base with a letter to the commander and risked arrest again to deliver a call to prosecute for war crimes.

“We are handcuffed and arrested. They take us to the station 20 miles away,” she said. “We get bench trials, where we’ve been found guilty.”

She said charges often get downgraded from a misdemeanor to an ordinance violation.

First has participated in other anti-war actions, including at the White House and Pentagon, and she plans to attend another demonstration in Washington, D.C., in September.

First arrived at anti-war activism in her 50s. “This is something that I just feel I’m called to do. I think about my grandchildren and I have to do this.”

She has six grandchildren between the ages of 4 and 16 and she’s spoken with all of them about war and peace.

“We’ve talked about why I’m doing this and why it’s important,” she said. “We’ve talked about war and people dying.”

P HOTO : B e s t e v e n t s . u s

Peace activists will march 90 miles, from Madison to Volk Field at Camp Douglas.

Wisconsinites float Lanterns for Peace

August brings peace actions around the world. The tradition, in part, commemorates the anniversary of America’s atomic bombings of Japan.

This year marked the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and Nagasaki, on Aug. 9, 1945. The attacks by the United States hastened an end to World War II, with Japan’s surrender days later.

About 200,000 people died in the two blasts.

Each year, Japan’s government marks the anniversaries with a memorial at Budokan hall in Tokyo.

This year in Japan, memorials also were held in peace parks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as concerts, film screenings, art exhibits and seminars.

Memorials also were held across the country, including in Wisconsin, where Lanterns for Peace ceremonies took place at Governor Dodge State Park near Dodgeville on Aug. 2, Tenney Park in Madison on Aug. 6 and Washington Park in Milwaukee on Aug. 8.

— Lisa Neff

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WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

| August 13, 2015

11

Safety concerns raised over ride-sharing services

By Lisa Neff Staff writer

One of the early lessons children learn is to never get into a stranger’s car. They carry that lesson into adulthood, with an exception for hailing a taxi.

But what about lining up a ride via Uber, Lyft or another ride-sharing service?

Safety advocates say they have serious concerns about the security of passengers in Uber vehicles, especially female passengers.

Uber operates in more than 250 cities in more than 50 countries. In May, the company announced an expansion of services in Wisconsin and now has contracted drivers operating in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha, Racine, Lake Geneva, Waukesha and the Wisconsin Dells.

Uber, in its Wisconsin announcement, said the expansion “followed passage of statewide regulations that have created a framework that embraces ride-sharing across Wisconsin.”

“In Wisconsin, our ride-sharing service UberX offers Uber convenience with prices cheaper than a taxi,” the company stated.

“UberX driver partners have vehicles in a variety of colors and styles, with seating for up to four passengers.”

Passengers pay a base fee, plus costs per minute and per mile, with minimum fares set in some communities.

Ride-sharing is a service that’s particularly popular with young, urban adults.

“I don’t have a car and I don’t want one,” said Emily Brune, 21, of Madison. “But I can’t walk or bike everywhere and Uber has been the perfect answer for me and some of my friends.”

Michael Clauson, 28, of Milwaukee, is another customer and he’s considering becoming a driver.

“I like the idea that you can just work when you want,” Clauson said. “For someone who wants to make some extra money, that’s cool.”

Uber conducts background checks on driver applicants.

“To maintain the Uber standard you expect, all driver partners must undergo Uber’s rigorous screening process and every ride is covered by our $1 million commercial liability insurance policy,” the company said in introducing its Wisconsin operation. “After every trip, riders and drivers rate one another on a scale of one to five stars to maintain a safe and respectful environment for all users.”

However, Uber’s drivers are contractors, not employees, and the terms of service for passengers say the company “does not guarantee the quality, suitability, safety or ability of third-party providers.”

Over the past two years, there have been multiple reports of violence by Uber drivers against passengers. The Who’s Driving You? campaign — which was launched in 2014 by a trade association of taxicab, limousine and paratransit companies — collects and tracks complaints against Uber and Lyft drivers and reports of crimes.

The campaign’s website contains reports of drivers brandishing knives, negligent crashes, fights, thefts, kidnappings and rapes.

One report tracked by Who’s Driving You? involved a driver in D.C. who delivered an anti-gay tirade and assaulted a passenger who burped. Another involved a D.C. passenger suing Uber for $2 million after a driver repeatedly stabbed him.

In Los Angeles earlier this year, an Uber driver was arrested for attempted seconddegree burglary. He allegedly dropped a female passenger off at the airport and then went to her home to break in. The woman’s roommate thwarted the attempt.

In Massachusetts, an Uber driver accused of raping a female passenger in December has now been linked by DNA evidence and witness accounts to five other sexual assaults between 2006 and 2010.

There have been at least three other assault-related incidents reported in the Boston area, as well as violent crimes reported in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Uber drivers also have been arrested in England and India for sexually assaulting passengers. A lawsuit filed early this year after the rape of a female passenger in India described Uber’s service as the “modern-day equivalent of electronic hitchhiking.”

In March, Uber responded to the concerns with a new code of conduct for drivers and passengers, a quality assurance program, worldwide incident response teams, stronger partnerships with law enforcement and improved background checks.

Uber also pledged new technology updates for safety. In India, the Uber platform features an SOS button so riders can contact local law enforcement directly from the app in emergencies. Another feature enables riders to keep multiple people informed of their exact location at all times while riding with Uber.

“With more than a million rides per day in 295 cities and 55 countries, continually improving rider and driver safety is the most critical component of what we do,” stated Phillip Cardenas, head of global safety at Uber.

But concerns continue. Referring to

“multiple accounts of sexual and violent assaults that have been reported to date,” a petition circulating on Change.org asks Uber to provide an option for female passengers to choose female drivers.

Another issue of concern is the impact of Uber and other ride-sharing services on the economy. Uber drivers — who set their own hours — collect a fee from passengers and Uber takes a commission from the fees. Uber drivers don’t earn the wages of taxi drivers and other transportation workers and could negatively impact wages in the field.

Earlier this summer, progressive New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to limit the number of Uber drivers on the streets, putting him at odds with Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, says she wants to crack down on companies that classify workers as contractors rather than employees. These companies avoid the costs associated with hiring personnel, put the burden of some expense on their contractors and earn profits off those contractors.

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush recently responded to Clinton by taking an Uber ride in San Francisco.

Bush’s driver, however, didn’t recognize the candidate and told reporters he probably would vote for Clinton.

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WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

| August 13, 2015

E ditorial

Walker does more gesturing than talking during debate — and with good reason The Federal Election Commission’s recent release of Scott Walker’s finances should give his supporters pause: The governor’s personal financial liabilities far outweigh his assets.

Walker reported assets between $36,000 and $190,000 — made up mostly of life insurance and a government deferred compensation plan. Walker owes between $120,000 and $280,000, largely because of student loan debt for his sons.

He listed no property ownership.

Walker has two credit card debts of more than $10,000 each, one of them with Barclays, whom he’s owed between $10,000 and $15,000 since 2014. He’s paying an interest rate of 27.24 percent on the card — a rate that’s applied to risky loans.

Walker, who’s worked in politics his entire career, listed his governor’s salary of $222,899 on the disclosure form and reported a $45,000 advance payment for his recent book.

Most people would assume that the head of a household of four could stay above water on that kind of money, especially when the person in question can buy sweaters for $1 at Kohl’s.

Maybe Walker’s personal financial situation helps account for his terrible budget choices and the series of damaging economic decisions he’s made since taking office in 2011.

His signature job agency, known as WEDC, gave out $124 million to prospective job creators, many of them Walker donors, who weren’t required to create jobs in the state.

There was no system of oversight at the agency, which Walker chaired, and WEDC lost track of millions of taxpayer dollars. Audits of the agency repeatedly cited gross mismanagement.

Walker’s response to the situation was to try getting rid of the watchdog agency that conducted those audits.

Walker has hurt Wisconsin’s economy in so many other ways that it would fill several pages of this paper to list them.

So, no wonder Walker was all but invisible during the first presidential debate on Aug. 6. He doesn’t have many successes to talk about, but at least the gaffe-prone governor has enough wit to keep a low profile.

The candidates were given 60 seconds to answer questions, but Walker often took even less time. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Walker spoke less than 40 seconds during the first 30 minutes of the debate and only six minutes in total.

Asked by debate moderator Megyn Kelly about his failure to create the 250,000 jobs he promised in his 2010 campaign, Walker gave his canned response: He likes to aim high. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that’s a selfaggrandizing answer that avoids admitting he broke his promise — a promise that was likely to be broken, since it was based on nothing but bombast.

For the millions of viewers who were glimpsing Walker for the first time, his muted performance must have been baffling. Positioned by his handlers as a shoot-from-the-hip charmer who’s even popular among Wisconsin Democrats, Walker failed to make good on that image.

Walker did, however, put on a mime show of mugging whenever he was in range of the camera — shaking his head, grimacing and widening his eyes — all with an uncomfortable amount of energy to signal his agreement with other candidates’ statements. He came off like an emoji.

Given the inevitability of questions concerning his personal and official financial responsibility, Walker will not be able to rely on gesture alone in the months ahead. He’ll need more to talk about than his Harley and his sweaters.

WiG’s WEB PICKS Some of our favorite recent pictorials from cyberspace

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ON THE RECORD “The climate is changing; I don’t think anybody can argue it’s not.

Human activity has contributed to it.”

— GOP presidential contender JEB BUSH, formerly a climate-change denier, acknowledging the phenomenon and humans’ contribution to it in an email interview with Bloomberg BNA. But he went on to say that government is overreaching in trying to regulate carbon emissions.

“Gov. Walker believes facts have shown that there has not been any measurable warming in the last 15 or 20 years.”

— Walker spokeswoman AshLee Strong telling the Wisconsin State Journal that Scott Walker thinks climate change is a hoax.

“I’m not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women’s health issues.”

— Presidential candidate JEB BUSH speaking on the campaign trail about fat in the federal budget.

“Now, he’s got no problem giving billions of dollars away to super-wealthy and powerful corporations, but I guess women’s health just isn’t a priority for him.”

— Presidential candidate HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON responding to Jeb Bush’s remark above.

“We’re the first generation to feel the impact of climate change, and we’re the last generation that can do something about it. We only get one planet.

There’s no Plan B.” — PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA announcing a federal plan to cut power plant emissions. Scott Walker and other right-wing governors plan to sue over the new rules, saying they’re too expensive.

“I’m like (spitting) all the time when the water washes on me. It’s the worst place. I’ve never seen a place so dirty. The water is black.”

— Olympic wind surfer BLANCA MANCHON of Spain talking about the foul, polluted water in Guanabara Bay, where she’ll be expected to compete in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

“Liberty University was kind enough to invite me to address a convocation and I decided to accept.

It is very easy for a candidate to speak to people who hold the same views. It’s harder but important to reach out to others who look at the world differently. I look forward to meeting with the students and faculty of Liberty University.”

— Presidential candidate BERNIE SANDERS, in a statement explaining why he agreed to speak at a convocation held at the religious-right Liberty University.

“We regret to inform to all our friends, family and Uggie’s fans that our beloved boy has passed away.

Uggie ... is now in a better place, not feeling pain.

Thank you for your support, I will not be reading any comments for a while as it is too painful at the moment.”

— OMAR VAN MUELLER, the owner and trainer of Uggie, the scene-stealing dog that rose to fame in the Oscar-winning film The Artist, announcing on Facebook that the 13-year-old pooch had died from prostate cancer.

| August 13, 2015

Another war is not the answer Opinion JAMAKAYA Last March, while surfing The New York Times web site, I came across a headline that hit me like a physical blow.

In large, bold font it read: “To Stop Iran’s Bomb, Bomb Iran.”

It was written by John R. Bolton, a hawk in the George W. Bush administration who was one of the biggest cheerleaders for our invasion of Iraq.

In his short stint as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2005–06), Bolton spent his time saber rattling and making new enemies. He now calls for war with Iran from his position as a “scholar” with the American Enterprise Institute, the nest of neoconservatives and war profiteers who whipped up war hysteria and goaded the Bush administration to attack Iraq.

In his op-ed, Bolton declared that “President

Obama’s approach on Iran has brought a bad situation to the brink of catastrophe.” He foresees a world in which Iran’s development of nuclear arms will ignite a nuclear arms race throughout the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey acquiring the technology from Iran or Pakistan.

(He gives Israel a free pass because everyone understands “that Israel’s nukes were intended as a deterrent, not as an offensive measure.” Somehow, I suspect Israel’s enemies might see the situation differently.)

Bolton’s solution? Heavy bombing of nuclear installations throughout Iran combined with “vigorous American support” for regime change in Tehran.

He urges this route even though it would only set back Iran’s nuclear weapons program by three to five years.

What happens after that? More bombing? Invasion? Nuke them into submission?

War-mongering has

escalated since the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, Russia and Germany completed an accord with Iran in July. The deal calls for a reduction of international sanctions in exchange for Iran slowing the development of its nuclear capacity by cutting its stockpile of enriched uranium by 98 percent and reducing the number of its centrifuges by two-thirds.

The Israelis see Iran as an existential threat.

Through their effective lobbying operations, they are pushing Congress to reject the treaty. They want the United States to help destroy Iran, not to make accords with it. I think if the Israelis feel they need to act against Iran they should do so on their own as they have in the past.

Most Americans are ignorant of Persian history and know Iran only from the American hostage-taking in 1979 or the chants of “Death to America!” by angry crowds. Few of us know that the American CIA deposed a reformist

13

prime minister in 1953 and imposed Shah Reza Pahlavi, a dictator who terrorized the country until he was overthrown in the 1979 revolution. The U.S. and Britain squelched democracy in Iran for decades to maintain control of its oil.

Western energy companies and states are still enraged over losing the profits from Iran’s oil fields.

It is past time we put these imperialist grudges behind us. America’s recent wars have only created more geopolitical chaos. After years of sanctions, the Iranian government and people want to rebuild their economy.

European, Chinese and Russian businesses are anxious to restore trade with the nation. We should be as well. The best course to the future is economic and cultural engagement, not war.

Congress will vote on the Iranian accord in September. Contact your congressional representative and U.S. Sens. Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson. Please urge them to vote “Yes.”

GOP wants to overturn women’s choice Opinion Rep. Chris Taylor

When I went to work as Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin’s legislative director in 2003, I was unprepared for the attacks the organization experiences on a routine basis. The staff and physicians who walk into women’s health centers every day are targeted, harassed and threatened. Their workplaces are vandalized. They keep going because they know that without PPWI, thousands of women in our state wouldn’t have access to birth control, cervical and breast cancer screening or treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.

Abortion is only a tiny piece of the services PPWI provides, but it is a critical service. And there are people in our state who risk their lives every day to provide it.

When I was elected state representative, I saw that some legislators are in the Capitol solely to make abortion and birth control illegal. They will stop at nothing to achieve that goal.

Look at their reaction to the latest smear campaign against Planned Parenthood.

They’ve passed a new law that would lower birth control reimbursement rates for providers serving lowincome women to a level that could shut down most or all of the health centers.

Although Gov. Scott Walker and legislative Republicans have already denied any state funding for the birth control and cancer detection efforts that PPWI provides (no public monies can be used for abortion services), they now are attempting to deny any federal family planning funds as well.

This is part of a national effort. At the recent annual American Legislative Exchange Council convention, the campaign against

Planned Parenthood was a cause célèbre among GOP presidential candidates. ALEC purports not to address social issues, but it and the anti-abortion movement have many of the same funding sources and goal — electing Republicans who will carry out their agendas.

Under the ALEC banner of free markets and limited government, Walker touted his defunding PPWI. But he failed to mention that his actions shut down five mostly rural health centers that provided cervical and breast cancer screens — not abortions. Nor did he mention new numbers showing that 25 percent fewer women had access to a women’s health center in 2013 than in 2010.

The biggest lesson I have learned about reproductive health has been as a woman who struggled through six pregnancies, more than half unsuccessfully. I learned that the decisions we make about our reproductive

health aren’t about death, but about life. About living.

Whether we are faced with an unintended pregnancy or a wanted pregnancy that goes wrong, we are trying to live the lives we imagined for our families and us.

Conservatives want to talk about death and fetal tissue and body parts, leaving women out of the discussion on abortion and reproductive health. They ignore the reality of women’s lives and the dreams we have for ourselves and the families we may, or may not, someday have.

What they really want is to stamp out our ability to make decisions about our lives. They are using the latest campaign to shut down Planned Parenthood to do just that.

We must make sure that doesn’t happen.

Rep. Chris Taylor represents the 76th Assembly District, which is in and around Madison.

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WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

| August 13, 2015

regional news jevic for her service to the board, saying that she had done an “extraordinary job of leading the board through tumultuous times.”

In other regional news …

• BACKING BUCKS DEAL: The Wisconsin state Assembly voted in late July to spend $250 million in public funds on a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks, a deal that enjoyed bipartisan support. Gov. Scott Walker signed the bill into law on Aug. 12.

P h o t o : l e o na r d S o bc z a k

Several hundred equality supporters — and a small handful of anti-gay protesters — attended Madison’s Pride parade and rally on Sun., Aug. 9. Rain during the morning hours gave way to sunny skies and warm temperatures for an event that featured both the requisite number of drag queens and a family-friendly atmosphere. The event was organized by Outreach Madison, the capital city’s LGBT community center.

Milwaukee County BoarD chair resigns to lead new progressive organization

Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic stepped down from the board late last month to become the founding executive director of a new organization called Wisconsin Working Families Party.

Working with progressive, labor and community groups, the organization will focus on recruiting, training and electing progressive candidates.

“We will fight for an economy that works for all of us and a democracy in which every voice matters,” said Dimitrijevic in a statement to the press. “We will organize and empower people to build progressive power 365 days a year, and we will raise the living standard for working families and make Wisconsin stronger.”

Milwaukee County Supervisor Theodore Lipscomb Sr. was elected to succeed Dimitrijevic.

Lipscomb thanked his supporters, as well as Dimitri-

• ABORTED ORDINANCE: The mayor in Elkhart, Indiana, asked city council members to withdraw his proposed ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity after it sparked strong local opposition. However, Mayor Dick Moore isn’t giving up on the issue and plans to enact protections under the human rights ordinance.

• HIGHER COST FOR HIGHER ED: Undergraduate students at Iowa’s three public universities may have to pay $100 more for tuition next spring. The Iowa Board of Regents released a proposal for a 3 percent tuition increase beginning the spring 2016 semester.

• MUSSELING IN: The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources confirmed the presence of zebra mussels in Big Cormorant Lake in northwestern Minnesota’s Becker County. Zebra mussels, an invasive species, can damage boat motors and clog water pipes.

• OFF THE BENCH: In an effort to deal with his city’s growing transient population, Madison Mayor Paul Soglin wants to limit to one hour the time an individual can spend sitting on a bench in the downtown area. Lying down on the bench would be prohibited. Soglin also wants to ban anyone from sleeping on public sidewalks and right of ways from 5:30 a.m. to 1 a.m.

team also is nearly finished upgrading the wireless connectivity at Lambeau Field to help fans text and tweet about every touchdown pass from MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

• NO WRONGDOING: The Indiana Department of Health has cleared Planned Parenthood facilities that perform abortions in the state of any wrongdoing in the handling of fetal tissue. Republican Gov. Mike Pence on July 16 ordered an investigation of PP facilities to see if organs from aborted fetuses were being sold. Conservatives across the country have called for such investigations after an anti-abortion group circulated strategically edited, secretly made videos of PP officials discussing how they obtain organs from aborted fetuses for research.

Planned Parenthood has said its donations of fetal tissue for research are legal. The Indiana health department agreed, issuing a statement that its investigation found no evidence of any laws being broken.

• SAFER ROADS: Wisconsin Assembly members JoCasta Zamarripa, D-Milwaukee, and Josh Zepnick, D-Milwaukee, are introducing a measure that would provide driver’s licenses to thousands of immigrants in Wisconsin who lack Social Security numbers because they are undocumented or are in the process of adjusting their status, such as students with student visas, pending refugee and asylum cases, or victims of crime or abuse. Backers of the measure, including the Wisconsin Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and Voces de la Frontera, say the bill would improve highway safety because all drivers will have to pass both written and driving tests.

• PACK IMPACT: The Green Bay Packers Foundation awarded a $250,000 matching impact grant to the Medical College of Wisconsin – Green Bay to fund student scholarships. The grant requires MCW-Green Bay to raise an additional $250,000 in order to secure the donation, creating a $500,000 impact.

• NOT FOR SALE: Green Bay Packers president Mark Murphy promises that at least one thing will never change on his watch: The team will never sell naming rights to Lambeau Field. But the Packers are embracing trendy throwback looks for alternate, third jerseys. The

— from WiG and AP reports

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WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

| August 13, 2015

Pet

Petfest returns Aug. 29

By Julie Steinbach Contributing writer

Petfest returns to Milwaukee’s lakefront on Aug. 29 for the second year in a row. The free, tail-wagging, lakeside pettacular takes place on Milwaukee’s Summerfest grounds, and those who attend can look forward to a bigger and better experience that’s definitely worth barking about. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with veterinarians, pet lovers, small business owners and each other in a show of furry camaraderie.

Fromm Family Foods, the festival’s primary sponsor and a creator of all-natural pet food, is partnering with many of southeastern Wisconsin’s pet businesses to create the ultimate experience for pet lovers.

One of those partners is Waukesha Veterinary Referral Center.

“WVRC was fortunate to be a part of the inaugural Petfest, and it was an amazing event,” said WVRC’s Kristin Bowen.

“Fromm did a fantastic job organizing a wonderful, free event for pets and animal

lovers. They have more events, vendors and activities, and we’re thrilled to be a part of it again this year.”

WVRC will offer educational opportunities for pet owners at Petfest’s “Ask the Experts” exhibit. They’ll also be on hand to provide first aid at the festival.

Last year’s event brought in more than 8,400 two-legged attendees and 3,500 four-legged companions. Organizers hope to draw even more visitors this year.

“Our hope for year two of Petfest is to continue the momentum from our first year and create new and memorable experiences for all who join us,” said Bryan Neiman, brand director for Fromm Family Foods. “This festival is really all about connecting the community and enhancing the experience of families and their pets.

By keeping it a free family event, we hope to have even more people join us. We’ve nearly doubled our footprint, added new activities and attractions and … many new and exciting sponsors, vendors and exhibitors.”

P h o t o : F r o m m Fa m i ly F o o ds

he Summerfest grounds will host Petfest on Aug. 29, offering an opportunity to meet with vets, small business owners and other pet lovers, as well as pet-tacular activities.

Furry festivalgoers will have many activity choices throughout the festival.

You can find out if your pet can sprint the Lure Course. And the Agility Course will test pets’ problem-solving prowess using a series of fun obstacles. Or, see if your pup can make the biggest splash down at the Dock Dive.

Petfest can even help you add a new family member. Take a stroll down Adoption Avenue to see if any furry faces say, “Take me home with you!” Adoption is a great way to give a second chance to a loving pet looking for a furr-ever home!

Sponsored by Central Bark, Adoption Avenue will have representatives from many of Wisconsin’s Humane Society locations and rescue organizations.

There will be entertainment and music on some of the festival stages, along with shopping in the Pet Marketplace and Vendor Village. Participating businesses include Petco, End of the Leash, The Lovin’ Oven Pet Bakery, and many others.

“It is so fun seeing so many dogs in one place!” says Susie Bower of End of the Leash. “It is such a great event for pets lovers — a great venue on a beautiful lakefront, fun activities, interesting speakers, all for free admission and free parking. The best part, you get to take your dog! What could be better?”

Pet owners can prepare for the festival by visiting petfestmke.com to download the festival waiver in advance if they wish to bring fluffy along. The site also allows pre-registering of pets for both the LookA-Like and Costume contests for extra fun.

Pet owners are advised to be sure their four-legged companions are current on all vaccinations should they wish to attend the festival.

Be sure to check out facebook.com/ frommpetfest for updates, and make sure to check in with #petfestmke when the big day arrives.

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| August 13, 2015

PET BRIEFS Former 41-pound fat cat in Texas slims down to 19 pounds

A former 41-pound cat dubbed Skinny has lost more than half of his weight to become the darling of a Dallas veterinary clinic.

Dr. Brittney Barton says the orange tabby she adopted in 2013 has slimmed down to 19 pounds with exercise and a special diet. Barton calls Skinny the “resident cat” at her practice, HEAL Veterinary Hospital.

Barton said Skinny spends weekdays roaming the clinic.

The ex-fat cat’s weekends are spent at home with Barton and her family.

Skinny was found abandoned near Dallas in 2012 and ended up at a shelter.

The vet says Skinny just had his annual checkup and is healthy.

Barton says Skinny is living proof that while he’s supposed to be a large cat, “he’s not supposed to be an obese cat.”

Prison program saves pets, brings ‘calming effect’

Since a prison pet program began last July at the Maryland Correctional Training Center south of Hagerstown, Maryland, 43 dogs and 16 cats have been rescued,

officials said on July 21.

Dogs and cats from across the region and as far away as southern West Virginia are being raised and trained by inmates at MCTC, with many of the pets being ultimately adopted.

Pets trapped in basements, tied down their entire lives and with medical issues or pregnant have been taken in, said Jessica Stevenson, case management specialist for the program.

“We tend to take animals that came from pretty severe abuse and neglect cases, hoarding cases, dogs that would otherwise not be deemed adoptable by shelters,” Stevenson said.

The pets sometimes receive basic obedience training but other times simply need attention, she said.

“The program’s been really beneficial for the inmate population but also really beneficial for the staff,” Stevenson said.

“Everybody has gotten very involved in it, we all genuinely care about the dogs and the cats that are here, and we’re all really invested in partnering with these shelters in our community to make sure that animals have a second chance at the homes that they deserve,” she said.

Lost cat found in Honolulu traced to Detroit family

When a family moved from Hawaii to Detroit more than a year ago, they thought they had lost their cat forever.

Bogie, a Siamese cat, was supposed to move with the family, but he escaped his kennel on a United Cargo flight, nonprofit Hawaii CatFriends told KHON-TV. Bogie was missing for 19 months before he was reconnected with the family in Michigan.

“I found Bogie about six or eight months ago,” Hawaii resident Bill Antilla said.

“There’s a number of cats I manage on Ualena Street near the Honolulu airport.

Bogie started showing up periodically.”

Antilla feeds a colony of stray cats in the area three nights a week. He is a volunteer for CatFriends, a nonprofit that spays and neuters feral cats on Oahu.

Bogie was friendlier than most feral cats and caught Antilla’s eye because he looked like a purebred Siamese.

He discovered that the cat was microchipped and the Hawaiian Humane Society was able to trace the information back to the family in Detroit.

“Probably about 30 minutes later, I received a call from the daughter. She was just ecstatic we found Bogie,” Antilla said.

— from AP reports

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WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

| August 13, 2015

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| August 13, 2015

ut on the town

August 13 – 27

A curated calendar of upcoming events

Wilson Center Guitar Competition Aug. 13 to 16 This annual celebration of all things guitar returns to Brookfield’s Wilson Center. Four diverse, world-class headliners will perform at the event: Croatian classical virtuoso Ana Vidovic, jazz acts Jonathan Kreisberg Quartet & The Troy Stetina Band, fingerstyle legend Leo Kottke and his opening act, Antoine Dufour, considered one of the world’s best rock guitarists. But this event isn’t just about the big names. It’s about the soon-to-be big names, competing in genres that correspond to those headliners and participating in master clinics before the first-place winners perform at the end of the weekend. At 19805 W. Capitol Drive. Ticket prices vary. Visit wilson-center.com for details and to order tickets.

‘Twelfth Night Unrehearsed’

Harbor Park Jazz, Rhythm and Blues Festival Aug. 15

Shakespeare isn’t easy to perform even when you’ve rehearsed, so unrehearsed Shakespeare sounds crazy at best. But the unique production style works better than you’d think — because its practitioners suggest their method, in which actors only learn their lines and snippets of the lines immediately preceding, might have been how Shakespeare’s own actors performed his plays. Theater RED will present Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in this style, with actors creating the show as they go and creating a unique theater experience. At the Cedarburg Art Museum, W63 N675 Washington Ave., Cedarburg. Tickets are $12. Visit theaterred.com for more information.

One of Kenosha’s most beloved music events is back for another year, and with a big headliner. Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans institution, formed in 1983 and rising from performances in the streets of the French Quarter to festivals and stages all over the world. Based in the brass band tradition, the group also infuses funk and hip-hop into their sound for a truly distinctive sound. They’ll play at 7 p.m., with several other local acts opening; the festival will also feature a cooking studio and various vendors.

Tickets are $25, $85 for VIP seats, and can be ordered at mahonefund.org.

Wollersheim Distillery Grand Opening Aug. 14 and 15

‘The Comedy of Hamlet … Kinda Sorta’ Aug. 20 to 22

Wollersheim Winery has been known as a vineyard for more than a century, with its origins dating all the way back to European vintners who cultivated its property more than 150 years ago. Back in the day, it wasn’t just wine that came from the property, but spirits as well.

They’ll return when Wollersheim opens its new distillery, during a two-day event where visitors can sample apple brandies, gin, absinthe and the winery’s popular Coquard Brandy, now in its third batch. At 7876 Hwy. 188, Prairie du Sac. Entry is free. Visit wollersheim.com for more details.

Last year, local comedian Patrick Schmitz brought Milwaukee a comedy version of Romeo and Juliet. This year, he’s turning Hamlet’s frown upside-down. His Comedy of Hamlet brings back many of the actors who made his first parody so hilarious to populate this tale of the “Fresh Prince of Elsinore,” and with a strong improv background, it’s hard to guess exactly why you’ll be laughing until you show up. At Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water St. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at nextact.org or 414-278-0765.

7 p.m. Aug. 15

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Mexican Fiesta Aug. 21 to 23 The tradition returns: Mexican Fiesta will once again celebrate the sound, culture and taste of Mexico at Milwaukee’s Summerfest grounds.

Around for about 40 years, the family-oriented festival will feature more than 100 artisans at the Cultural Pavilion, a sanctuary honoring Our Lady of Zapopan, soccer tournaments, midway rides and a variety of food vendors. At 200 N. Harbor Drive. Tickets are $13 in advance, $15 at the gate, with free admission for children under 8 all three days and seniors/military during select hours. Visit mexicanfiesta.org for more information or to purchase tickets.

Lebowski Fest August 21 and 22

P h o t o : W i k i m e d i a C o m m o ns

Yes, the festival for the cult film to end all cult films will roll into Milwaukee once again.

As always, the annual event dedicated to the Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski and The Dude himself will span two days. The first day, the Movie Party, will feature a screening of the film at Cathedral Square Park with food vendors and music by local act Here Come the Mummies (they really tie the room together). Then, for the Bowling Party, JB’s on 41 (4040 S. 27th St.) will offer unlimited bowling, along with costume and trivia contests and copious amounts of White Russians. Milwaukee’s festivities also include a White Russian liquid lunch kickoff at the Pabst Theater Pub Friday at 2 p.m., an afterparty Friday at the Newsroom Pub and a pre-party at Northern Brewer in West Allis on Saturday.

Tickets to both parties are $25; cover for the Friday afterparty is $5. Visit pabsttheater. org for more details.

TasteCosplay of Islands 2 to 10 p.m. Aug. 22 ‘Kamikaze Cutesauce Club’ Aug. 22 to 24

The Live at Peck Pavilion series comes to a close for the Lots of people in Milwaukee production Kamikaze Cutesauce yearliked withQuasimondo’s this celebration of Cubanofand Dominican culture.

Cosplay Club when the physical theater company produced it for the first time earlier Danceworks will be offering salsa dance lessons throughout this year. It turns out peoplethe liked in New York,offer too food — the show was selected out day,itwhile vendors and drinks from both regions. of more than 800 applicants to be produced as part of the New York International MadiSalsa and De La Buena will play throughout the day, with Fringe Festival at the end ofperformances the month. Asbya way to practice and give Milwaukee Salsabrosa Dance—Company between sets. one last look at the show —AtQuasimondo will stage an encore of Admisthis the Marcus Center, 929 N. Waterpresentation St., Milwaukee. production, which asks questions of gender, identity and culture through sion is free.

Visit marcuscenter.org to learn more.a tale of cosplaying Japanese schoolgirls and oppressive, manipulative businessmen. At Studio G in Grand Avenue Mall, 161 W. Wisconsin Ave. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at thequasimondo.com.

Join us for a delicious food tasting along the shores of Lake Michigan Tuesday, August 25 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

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| August 13, 2015

A curated calendar of upcoming events

August 13 - 27

The Sklar Brothers Aug. 27 to 29 Twin comedians sounds like a gimmick, but the way the Sklar Brothers work, it’s anything but. Randy and Jason Sklar have used their similarities and synergy as a tool to enhance their act, not a crutch to support it, and the results have been seen on shows as diverse as Curb Your Enthusiasm, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Grey’s Anatomy and Entourage. Taking a break from their current roles as hosts of the History Channel docu-comedy The United Stats of America and sports podcast Sklarbro Country, they’ll appear at Madison’s Comedy Club for a three-night stint. At 202 State St. Tickets range from $15 to $20 and can be purchased at madisonorpheum.com or 608-250-2600.

Yum Yum Fest 3 p.m. Aug. 23 Summer may be coming to an end, but Madison has at least one more party left in the season. The annual Yum Yum Fest, organized by the Madison Area Chefs Network, will give chefs from 24 restaurants a chance to highlight their creative cuisine. The event also hosts regional and national music acts, including Milwaukee synthpop group GGOOLLDD and alternative hip-hop artist Lizzo. At Central Park, 202 S. Ingersoll St. Tickets are $10, with $5 food and drink tickets. Visit yumyumfest.org for more details.

The Mount Mary University Alumnae Association presents:

Sunday, September 13, 2015 | 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Keep reading for…

‘Hyperreality Show’: New theater company Stagecloud premieres this quartet of media-centric plays live, and will then present a recorded version online for subscribers to its streaming platform. Through Aug. 16. See page 30.

Mount Mary University Campus | 2900 N. Menomonee River Parkway | Milwaukee

200+ Artists Presenting Pieces for $100 or Less $10 Entry Fee with FREE Parking | Children under 12 FREE Thank You for Supporting Student Scholarships!

Artist: Nick Bowers

‘Guys and Dolls’: Four Seasons Theatre in Madison wraps up its 10th anniversary season with this classic American musical. Aug. 21 to 23. See page 31.

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE:

https://mmusas.eventbrite.com

mtmary.edu/SAS Not valid for entry

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WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

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Sprecher celebrates 30 years of beers, root and otherwise

By Matthew Reddin Staff writer

Say “Sprecher,” and you think “root beer.”

In its 30-year history, it’s for that tasty soda that the Wisconsin brewery has become best known. Yet as it approaches this milestone, founder Randy Sprecher says his company’s growing bigger than ever — and it won’t be all about the root beer for long.

“After about the second year of (making) soda, root beer’s been bigger than everything else combined for all these other years,” he says. “It’s still up there … but it looks like the alcohol side is catching up.”

In a sense, that’s a return to form for Sprecher Brewing. The company was founded as a brewery in 1985 and has never stopped selling beers of all kinds — it’s now a national brand with distribution throughout the country. Sprecher Brewing holds the distinction of being the first craft brewery in Milwaukee since Prohibition (although Sprecher notes that other breweries popped up around the same time).

Sprecher spent five years as a supervisor for Pabst before founding his brewery.

Before that, he gained his appreciation for high-quality beer in Germany, where he was stationed for 18 months during the Vietnam War after the military discovered he was color-blind. “When I returned to the West Coast, where I’m from … I just wasn’t going to drink American beer anymore.”

In its early days, Sprecher Brewing only featured four or five beers at a time, crafted from Sprecher’s own recipes. The brewery’s big soda innovation, though, came almost by accident. Because so many of Sprecher’s patrons would bring their full families, including children, to see the brewery, he began offering kids free samples of his “No.

2” root beer — the easiest one to make, and the one he thought would be easiest to train others to make.

It was a prescient call, because it wasn’t long before Sprecher needed to start that training. The company currently makes nine sodas year-round, in addition to several seasonal varieties. In comparison, the year-round beer selection only numbers six brews, although the addition of seasonal brews and other specialty items brings the total to two dozen.

One category of specialty brew that’s helping to lift Sprecher’s alcoholic portfolio is a new series of “hard” products, including a hard root beer, hard ginger beer and hard apple pie. The hard root beer was the first to hit shelves, in 2013, but Sprecher says he had been offering it in growlers at the brewery starting years prior; he just didn’t have the proper licensing to commercially release it until now.

But he also thinks the company’s beers — ranging from classics like the award-winning Black Bavarian to more experimental brews like their Piper’s Scotch Ale and IPA² — are starting to catch up due to consumers growing more aware of the brewery’s broad portfolio. He says the company’s kept the same philosophy for 30 years: “Make the best beers we can and try to find customers who like what we’re making, as opposed to trying to be a beer for everybody.”

But Sprecher Brewing isn’t just waiting for customers to find them anymore. Sprecher says the company is looking to start franchising the Sprecher restaurant concept, currently in four locations in the Milwaukee area, and is marketing non-beverage items like beer-flavored kettle chips, condiments and bratwurst. “Hopefully down the road,

P h o t o : S p r e c h e r B r e w i ng C o m pan y

Sprecher Brewing Company is best known for its wide variety of sodas, but founder Randy Sprecher says the company’s alcoholic brews are growing increasingly popular.

I’d like to have everything so that if it says ‘Sprecher’ on it, you know you’re going to get a high-quality item,” he says.

They’re also hitting the road in partnership with Milwaukee County Parks. For the past two years, Sprecher says, the brewery has co-hosted a Traveling Beer Garden series that tours the parks. He says the series has been well-received and will culminate in a 30th anniversary celebration Aug. 28-29 at

Juneau Park, 801 N. Lincoln Memorial Drive.

Both days will feature musical performances, starting at 4 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m.

Saturday. Seminal LA punk band X performs Friday night and Milwaukee’s beloved De La Buena headlines on Saturday. Visit Sprecher Brewery’s Facebook page for more details.

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Give rieslings another chance for summer sipping

P h o t o : B o t h a m v i n e ya r ds

Rieslings may have a reputation as less complex wines, but their widely varying “terroir” means each individual riesling has its own unique qualities.

By Michael Muckian Contributing writer

Many wine lovers who grew up in Wisconsin cut their teeth on German riesling. Its bright fruit flavor made it easy to appreciate, and just as easy to abandon as those wine lovers’ palates became more sophisticated.

But if you haven’t sampled riesling lately, consider this: Many wine experts say riesling is their favorite grape, and not just because it’s the foundation of the German wine industry.

Riesling, better than any other grape, has the ability to reflect the conditions under

which it is grown. Most experts respect riesling’s versatility, resiliency and the terroir that gives the wine its distinct character.

Terroir refers to the various elements that influence wine grapes, including soil, sunlight, climate, length of growing seasons and even the skill of the individual winemaker.

Riesling grapes provide a rich, interpretive canvas, and the resulting wine’s transparency reflects more variations in terroir than wine produced by other grapes, yet without succumbing to those conditions.

As such, riesling wines can be as different as night and day, depending on the soil’s mineral content, the vineyard’s elevation and the winemaker’s intent. The resulting wine will well illustrate the grape’s interpretation of all those conditions, and how well they thrive under different growing regimens.

The classic German riesling, all bright fruit, perfumed nose and luscious mouth feel, has long been the grape’s benchmark wine. But the grapes produce excellent variants that can be sweet or dry, dinner or dessert variety, with no loss of integrity.

The nose can range from floral perfume to astringent petrol notes, and the wine’s body can be plump and fulsome, or lightly ethereal. The capability for both is contained in the fruit.

Rieslings historically have been produced in the cooler climates of Austria and Germany, some of which are now being outpaced

by New World vineyards in the United States and Canada, not to mention New Zealand and South Africa. Australia’s Clare Valley is pushing the envelope, creating unusual rieslings that experts agree may be the first in some time to truly advance the art form.

Best yet, rieslings chill well and can brighten any outdoor event. Here are seven locally available selections to get you started: A number of Wisconsin wineries offer riesling, but if you only try one make it the Botham Riesling ($11), from Botham Vineyards just outside of Barneveld. The riesling is crafted in the “Johannesburg style,” according to winemaker Peter Botham.

Expect a wine with gentle sweetness and a soft mouthfeel that replicates the classic style and pairs well with cheeses and chocolates.

The Hugel et Fils Riesling ($20) from the Alsace region of France, by comparison, tends toward the dry side with significant depth and balance. A floral/petrol nose gives way to a palate dominated by pears, but with big character and quite a bit of polish. The winemaker’s craft has made this a notable showcase for the grape’s possibilities.

The Trefethen Estate Dry Riesling ($19), from the Trefethen Family Vineyards in Napa, California, has crept a little further down the semi-dry spectrum. Its slight petrol RIESLING next page

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| August 13, 2015

Umami-enhanced pasta packs in flavor

By Melissa D’Arabian

Associated Press writer

If you’ve been out to eat at any trendy restaurant during the past five years or have watched any food competition show, you probably have heard of umami. Umami is the pleasant savory flavor resulting from the interaction of certain amino acids with receptors on the human tongue. (It’s a wonder we don’t get into this level of detail on TV, no?)

Translation: Dishes higher in these specific amino acids taste better to us, balanced and complex, even in low-salt dishes, which is good to know if you are watching sodium. Foods with umami have a meatiness or pleasant earthiness that can feel rich and satisfying. Anchovies, soy sauce, mushrooms, aged cheeses, yeasts and fermented foods all are rich in umami.

This week’s mushroom-miso pasta is a tad indulgent, but tastes far richer, creamier and

MUSHROOM-MISO PASTA Start to Finish: 20 minutes Servings: 4 Ingredients: 8 ounces whole-grain penne pasta 3 tablespoons butter 8 ounces chopped mixed mushrooms (portobello, cremini, button, etc.)

2 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 cup dry white wine 1 tablespoon white miso paste 3/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (to taste) 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (optional) Kosher salt and ground black pepper RIESLING from prior page nose leads to a wine that’s well-balanced between fruit and acidity, with notes of white peach and citrus on the palate.

Reilly’s Barking Mad Riesling ($12), from Australia’s Clare Valley, takes a turn distinct enough to raise eyebrows. However, its petrol nose, ripe citrus and sweet finish prove it can only be a riesling despite the area’s more rigorous and unusual growing conditions.

Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler Noble House Riesling ($12), from Germany’s Mosel region, takes a turn back toward the familiar nose and flavor profiles, although lightly so.

The wine’s fruit and acidity balance nicely, streaking across the palate with a fairly long finish. Peach, apricot and mineral characterize the bright, light-bodied wine.

Dr. Fischer Ockfenner Bockstein Kabinett ($19), also from Mosel, ratchets the

more sinful than it actually is. Using nutty browned butter underscores the earthy mushroom’s umami flavors. Miso paste, or fermented soybean paste, is the real hero here, though, adding surprising depth to this easy weeknight dish, as well as a buttery, almost creamy taste to the sauce that brings all the flavors together.

Miso paste, available in various strengths in most grocery stores — mild white, medium yellow and stronger red and brown — is a staple in my kitchen, as it brings flavor and richness to dishes without adding fat and calories (but note that it does have salt).

Adding even more umami to this dish is the nutritional yeast. It’s an optional ingredient, but I think well worth seeking out if you aren’t familiar with it. It adds a wonderful aged-cheese-like flavor that turns this simple mushroom-miso pasta dish into a veritable “umami bomb,’” which is a good thing in the food world.

Directions: Bring a large saucepan of well-salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium, heat the butter, allowing it to bubble and cook until it turns nutty brown, about 5 minutes. Keep a close eye on it, as butter burns easily. Add the mushrooms and garlic, then cook until the mushrooms are tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the wine and stir and scrape the pan to deglaze, then simmer for 1 minute to cook off the alcohol.

Whisk in the miso and chicken stock and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the nutritional yeast and mustard, if using, then stir until the sauce is uniform. Season with pepper, then taste and adjust with salt as needed. Remove the skillet from the heat and toss with the hot pasta.

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elements of the two previous wines up a notch or two, adding brighter characteristics and greater depth. A hint of strawberries highlights a complex flavor palate in this exceptionally made wine.

One of the most delightful Rieslings on the market comes in a half-sized 355 ml bottle. King Estate’s NxNW Dessert Riesling ($15) from Washington is produced in “eiswein” (or “ice wine”) style from late-harvest grapes, meaning they contain significantly more residual sugars. The resulting wine is the perfect balance of luscious sweetness and plenty of acidity. Flavors of tangerine, papaya and honey abound in this refined choice. It’s perhaps too sweet to be a dinner wine, but as a twilight sipper at the end of a romantic picnic, it can work wonders.

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!

T U WiGO

As music moves to online streams, will artists drown?

By Julie Steinbach Contributing writer

The digital age of music distribution has taken the music industry completely by storm. In the last decade, streaming services have become one of the most popular ways that consumers can affordably and conveniently access their favorite artists’ music.

That’s why Taylor Swift made headlines when she took her entire discography off Spotify and other platforms last year.

The move was made just before Swift’s 1989 was released e xc l u s i ve l y in stores.

Music consumers have gotten used to immediate and unlimited access to our favorite artists through streaming services, so Swift’s decision shocked.

Swift has since chosen to release 1989 on a different streaming service, Apple Music (although not without publicly shaming the company into paying artists, record labels and publishers for streams during its three-month trial). But her opposition to Spotify and other streaming sites that offer free music isn’t just a publicity stunt. It’s also a bold statement of opposition to a business model that may not benefit artists as much as it promises, whether multi-million-dollar mega-stars or the bandmates in the garage next door.

Streaming models

There are two types of streaming services that consumers take the most advantage of: customizable, streaming radio and subscription-based, on-demand streaming services.

Pandora, and similar platforms including Slacker Radio, 8Tracks and Songza, provide a customizable streaming-radio experience. Most streaming radio sites, including Pandora, allow listeners to select genres and artists they like. The provider then supplies complementary music based on that choice, shuffling in new or different bands that may pique interest.

Online streaming radio platforms generally don’t

offer users the option to download songs from their site, steering listeners to retailers like Amazon or iTunes if they want to purchase single tracks or albums. These services also tend to be ad-supported, offering free sign-up but only removing audio and video ads after users purchase a subscription.

On-demand platforms allow listeners to play music from their staggeringly large libraries anytime, anywhere and as many times as they like. Spotify features 20 million songs, and while other services have much smaller catalogues, there’s still more music there than you could ever conceivably listen to.

Spotify offers a free version, and premium perks come with the monthly fee of $9.99. Premium access eliminates ad interruptions between songs, allows for offline downloading of songs and playlists and plays tracks at the highest possible audio quality.

Of the two methods, streaming radio has proven to be more profitable for artists. Since Pandora users can’t access any song or album at a given time, they’re far more likely to invest in the artists they discover by going elsewhere and purchasing albums at full price. Royalties are then generated in real-time unit sales and feed back into the artist’s business.

If artists’ collected works and new releases are available in full for a small fee to an on-demand streaming service however, users will simply listen to music there, without purchasing the record. It’s a distinction that has repercussions for artists.

Crunching the numbers

The earnings for artists are miniscule in both the customizable radio and on-demand streaming models, but on-demand streaming more seriously jeopardizes their ability to earn a fair profit from their work because its goal is to overtake the current business model, not supplement it.

Customizable radio services are engines for discovering new music or listening to personalized radio streams. At best, Pandora pays out a mere $0.0024 per stream, but because users can’t choose to listen to any particular song whenever

they please, that small profit is added to sales elsewhere, not replacing them. Pandora and other streaming radio options thus become opportunities for artists to gain exposure without losing much of anything.

Users of on-demand streaming platforms are led to believe that their monthly payment somehow makes its way back to the artists they stream in the same way album and individual track sales immediately pay an artist, but the reality is more complicated.

Take the data Spotify provides on its information page “Spotify Explained.” Spotify uses a complicated formula to determine how much money to pay artists, but those variables currently add up to an average payout of between $0.006 and $0.0084 per stream. Admittedly, it’s a rate higher than that on Pandora, but only if you don’t take into account the fact that Spotify users may never purchase the songs or albums they add to their digital collection.

And it’s impossible for all but the biggest artists to make the same amount as they would in direct sales. In order for a listener to stream an artist’s song enough to equal an iTunes or Amazon pricetag of $0.99, the listener would have to play one track 120 and 167 times — an unlikely scenario for even the most popular new tune.

If payments are so low, why do artists sign on? The answer comes down to one seemingly insurmountable threat: piracy.

Spotify argues that because of piracy, musicians are losing money that is rightfully theirs and signing up for their service is the best way to get anything for their music.

For Grammy award-winning composer and Los Angeles-based artist Christopher Tin, both sides of the streaming coin are worth acknowledging. “The streaming model is wonderful for consumers, no doubt about that, but the problem is, it really undervalues the product,” he said. “When a streaming service tells its customers they can listen to any music they want to that has ever been recorded, anywhere, (and) all they have to do is pay $10 a month for access, that’s a great value for the customer, but it isn’t sustainable for the artists.”

Spotify’s CEO, Swedish entrepreneur Daniel Ek, has maintained that his company’s major initiative has always been to bring the value of music as great art back to life by seeking to circumvent Internet piracy. He said his service is designed to bring those marauders back into the fold as paying music consumers.

In an interview with USA Today, Ek said, “We’re getting fans to pay for music again.

We’re connecting artists to fans they would STREAMING next page

WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

STREAMING from prior page never have otherwise found, and we’re paying them for every single listen. We’re not just streaming, we’re mainstreaming now, and that’s good for music makers and music lovers around the world.”

Tin said there are a few hang-ups with that argument. But the most important is that Spotify changes the dynamic of the music industry, from one where users pay artists to one where users pay streaming services.

“If users can subscribe to a service like Spotify for only $10 a month and listen to everything that’s out there, there’s no need for the consumer to purchase music anymore,” Tin said. “It cuts into artists’ album sales, and that’s something that smaller artists really still rely on. When that is replaced by only streaming revenue, which is fractions of pennies, then that artist or band won’t make enough money to be able to record their next album.”

Analysis: Valuing music

Artists have taken many different stances in response to the popularity of streaming services. Some artists in the Taylor Swift camp have chosen to keep their albums off of services such as Spotify.

Swift’s move away from the streaming giants directly affected the outcome of 1989’s success in unit sales. Her followers on Spotify — numbering in the multiplemillions — would have had immediate and unlimited access to her album for a $10 payment to Spotify. Her decision re-routed the revenue, with her fans’ $13.99 payment

‘The streaming model is wonderful for consumers, no doubt about that, but it really undervalues the product.’ for 1989 going directly to her and her team.

Other musicians choose to temporarily keep their new albums off of streaming platforms for a short period after their release — Coldplay held its last two albums off Spotify for four months, for example.

Others, such as Tin, never release their collections in full, which allows for fans who purchase his full albums to enjoy a level of exclusivity those on streaming services don’t get.

For artists like Swift or Coldplay, who are already successful, marketing new projects and reaching fans is easy and profitable. Local and emerging artists, however, effectively have to get lucky, because they can’t make enough from digital distribution to become successful otherwise.

If streaming is going to succeed, it needs to find a way to make this new and largely still experimental market work in everyone’s favor. It’s a sad economic system that pits the consumer and artists against

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each other. It should be about the symbiosis in music commerce between the consumer and their favorite artists.

The bottom line, offered by Tin, is a question of balance and economy: “The question is, How do you use the (streaming) services such that you get the exposure element but you don’t cannibalize your own sales?”

This is a time when anyone with a desire to produce music can jump in and get creative. This also is a time of live musicianship where niche genres like jazz, classical, roots, blues, world music, among others, are still alive and being developed. While streaming platforms may be valuable for some performers, smaller artists still need the opportunity to recoup costs or they won’t be able to keep making music.

“My albums are expensive — I go to great lengths to record them,” said Tin. “If I can’t recoup at least some of that on sales, then I have to cut corners on the production or I just have to stop making albums. Artistry is sacred and you don’t

want things like economic factors to shape the music that’s created.”

Artists can get coveted exposure through all of the different streaming services, but eventually, that exposure needs to earn artists a living.

Milwaukee jazz artist Chris Newlin recognizes these circumstances. “I’m from the standpoint that all of the hard work you put into a product has value,” he said.

“And you deserve an amount of compensation for that which is not accurately represented in what Spotify pays at all. Exposure, however much that’s worth, it does not even come close to making up for the amount that a product is actually worth.”

Music has always been considered a cultural cornerstone, a commodity of the highest value. If the value of music is going to be maintained in this digital age, consumers can help by becoming more aware of how they acquire it, and how artists are — or are not — compensated.

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WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

| August 13, 2015

Experiencing the fickle beauty of Lake Superior

By Michael Muckian Contributing writer

The early morning hours in Presque Isle Bay, just off Stockton Island in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, were characterized by a quietude the likes of which I had never before experienced. Floating in a sailboat on the pristine water, I knew I might never experience such serenity again.

The gentle waves undulated smoothly across the water’s surface in this pocket of Lake Superior, as if glass had been manufactured and kept in a cool, liquid form, flowing ceaselessly, effortlessly and peacefully in the dawn sunlight. The silence was absolute, save for the sound of a single loon in the distance that called once, and then was silent out respect for those still asleep on the various vessels floating in the bay.

If heaven involves sailboats, I thought, then this is what it must be like.

This was the final morning of a new type of sailing adventure offered by Sailboats, Inc., the Bayfield firm that had taught my wife and I to sail last year. On this final day, the journey’s end — like the lake itself — would be a peaceful one.

Not every day of the voyage had been smooth, although the interactions among the passengers lacked the storminess for which Lake Superior is well known. Cold

seas, little to no wind and a route one of the veteran mariners thought equaled more than 200 miles created a sometimes-stressful lake passage.

Our group of six included experienced hands and sailing novices, a crew of students, teachers and passengers lured by the charms of the big lake the Ojibwe first called gichi-gami (“be a great sea”), and which Henry Wadsworth Longfellow changed to “Gitche Gumee” in his poem The Song of Hiawatha.

In addition to several Apostle Island stops, our itinerary included Isle Royale National Park, a part of Michigan but located just off Minnesota’s coast. We also would dock at Grand Marais, a colorful and quaint Minnesota tourist destination, before one last night anchoring in Presque Isle Bay. Our itinerary, while appealing, may have been too ambitious for a five-day sail. But like all journeys, our Lake Superior voyage offered valuable lessons, some of which solely applied to sailing and others that applied to life.

Lake Superior, the largest and northernmost of the Great Lakes, is considered the largest freshwater body in the Western Hemisphere and one of the three largest lakes in the world. With a surface area of 31,700 square miles, Superior is roughly the size of South Carolina or Austria.

P h o t o : M i c h a e l M u c k i an

Lake Superior is cold, huge and a challenge to traverse. But with the right training and the right attitude, sailing on it makes for a wonderful journey.

Superior has an average depth of 483 feet and contains 2,900 cubic miles of water, enough to cover all of North and South America to a depth of nearly 1 foot. Her power is not to be taken lightly, according to Capt. Beth Cozzi, who captained our voyage, nor are the microclimates created by the lake’s vast expanse.

Cozzi’s boat of choice was Sequel, an Oceanus 430 manufactured in 1998 by the French firm Beneteau. With a beam (width) of not quite 14 feet and a draft (keel depth) of almost 6 feet, the sleek, 43-foot sloop had a displacement factor of 16,000 pounds. She was a substantial craft that could handle Lake Superior.

The first lesson we learned was a chilling one. Given her size and depth, Lake Superior operates like a vast refrigerator with its doors flung wide, creating a frigid effect further compounded by the speed at which a boat travels across her surface. Rather than the August-appropriate shorts and swimsuits we had worn on the mainland, Superior demanded storm gear, warm jackets, wool gloves and insulated pants.

The second lesson was that Lake Superior’s vast distances, coupled with the sailboat’s modest speed, make for long, SUPERIOR next page

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SUPERIOR from prior page arduous voyages. Isle Royale was a 75-mile trek across open water from the outer Apostles. Even at a relatively brisk pace of 7 knots (roughly 8 miles per hour), the trip would take more than nine hours, not counting the hour or so entering Washington Harbor at the island’s remote west end and docking the boat at the Windigo landing. We arrived late in the afternoon.

Isle Royale is the least visited national park in the lower 48 states, according to a friendly ranger at the Windigo Visitors Center, but it also has the highest number of return visitors, thanks to its remoteness, wildness and nature of its purpose.

Isle Royale, the U.S. Park Service’s experiment in natural selection, is home to both moose herds and wolf packs that use each other to keep nature in balance. Long-time visitors speak of seeing moose somewhat regularly and wolves almost never, but the wolves help thin the herds, keeping the moose from eating all of the island’s vegetation.

Lately, however, the situation has become unbalanced, which has brought the whole experiment into question.

The moose population now numbers about 1,250, but there are only three wolves left on the island, far too few to keep the herd in check. Various proposals, including the introduction of more wolves to the island, are being considered by the park service.

Our time on the island was limited to one night and, other than some moose tracks, we saw little evidence of either species.

We had a little more time to spend in Grand Marais, the quaint harbor village of about 1,300 people in Minnesota’s arrowhead. Restaurants, brewpubs, galleries and gift shops dot the small downtown, including Sven & Ole’s Pizza and World’s Best Donuts. (I haven’t tasted all the world’s doughnuts yet, but these are worthy contenders for the title.)

We also stopped at the local Ben Franklin store to try on an Original Stormy Kromer Hat, named for George “Stormy” Kromer, a semi-professional baseball player and one-time railroad engineer. Legend has that Kromer got tired of losing his hats in the wind on the train and in 1903 asked his wife Ida to make him a warm hat that would stay on his head. She modified one of his old baseball caps with a continuous earflap that circled the cap, folded down and then tied at the chin.

The red plaid hats, which were manufactured in Milwaukee from 1919 until 2001 when manufacturer Bob Jacquart purchased the rights and moved production to Ironwood, Michigan, were warm as well as comfortable.

But at $49.95 each, they would have proved an expensive novelty. The hat stayed on the rack.

A fourth day of no wind found us motoring back to the Apostles. The experienced sailor among us expressed frustration with the practice he wasn’t getting, and we all missed the smooth glide of a boat with its jib and mainsail unfurled and filled with wind. Sequel’s Perkins engine was loud and the ride through the chop rocky, characteristics that had colored much of the trip.

But the journey was also filled with unexpected highlights. The whole experience, in fact, could have been encapsulated in the legend printed on the “Advice from Isle Royale” sweatshirts offered for sale in the Windigo Visitors Center.

“Roll with the waves,” the shirt said. “Open yourself to the journey.”

On that last morning, floating silently in Presque Isle Bay, I learned to do just that. And I was happy I had one of those sweatshirts packed away in my duffel bag to remind me of that sage advice whenever I needed it.

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| August 13, 2015

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WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

| August 13, 2015

New company Stagecloud offers theater, Netflix style

By Matthew Reddin Staff writer

If you’re reading this, it isn’t too late to see theater company Stagecloud’s first production in Milwaukee, Hyperreality Show. It just looks like it is.

The show, a series of four one-act plays running at In Tandem Theatre, closes on Aug. 16. But after that date, the show will get an afterlife, as the first work to be available on Stagecloud’s innovative theater streaming service.

Streaming services are increasingly the way people watch films and television programs, but Stagecloud founder and artistic director Sean Douglass says his company is the first in the country to try it with live theater, although individual theaters in the United Kingdom have experimented with the form. He originally came up with the idea while working as a playwright in Chicago, where he was frustrated by the inability of his friends and family around the world to see the work he was doing. “I thought it seemed like a fundamental thing theater had never really explored,” he says.

Douglass’ model is simple, and familiar to anyone with a Netflix or Hulu subscription. For a low fee — in this case, $2.99 a month — subscribers get access to the Stagecloud library, which will include full plays (recorded by The Stage Channel, a Chicago company that produces promotional videos for theater companies) as well as behind-the-scenes content, exclusive pod-

casts and video interviews with members of the theater industry. The latter are already in regular production, with Stagecloud currently featuring interviews with playwrights Frederick Mensch (writer of HBO film Nightingale) and Martin Zimmerman (writer for Netflix’s upcoming series Narcos), among others. Full plays will be added as they are produced live — Hyperreality Show will be the first, followed by another every three months or so.

It’ll be a slow build at first, but Douglass is hopeful that as Stagecloud gains subscribers and clout, the company can either produce more plays in a given season or work with other companies to film their productions and put them on the site. He’s even open to developing a sponsorship model, where Stagecloud offers funding to other companies in exchange for filming their shows, and share in the profits of that recording. “I think it would be mutually beneficial, to companies that are non-Equity,” Douglass says.

It’s that caveat that represents Douglass’ biggest stumbling block. Actors’ Equity Association, the labor union representing stage actors, heavily restricts the recording of productions featuring Equity actors, and it would be effectively impossible for Stagecloud to ever record and present an Equity show. But while that means Douglass has little to no chance of ever presenting a production by the Milwaukee Rep, or Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, for example, he says he has more than enough opportunities outside

those restrictions.

“We have very talented actors, and I don’t think the non-Equity status has been a hindrance to the quality of the production,” Douglass says. “It made it more difficult to cast, just in the sense that a lot of actors are Equity … (and) it might lead us to choosing shows that have younger casts, but not necessarily.” He adds that, if Stagecloud is successful, it’s possible Equity could revisit its rules about recordings, with Internet streaming in mind.

Stagecloud is meant to be a mobile company, and Douglass has contacts in Milwaukee, Chicago and New York whom he plans to rely on alternately. But Milwaukee made sense as a place to start. While much of Douglass’ experience is in Chicago, he grew up in Milwaukee and is living here now.

Hyperreality Show includes four plays, all written by Douglass and each dealing with contemporary pop culture and the media.

The plays range from more traditional rethinkings like Telenoverla, a parody of a Mexican telenovela, and Fairytale Ending, an after-happily-ever-after story of a Disneyesque prince and princess as their marriage matures, to more unconventional narratives like Brad and Mr. Sorkin Write a Movie, an imagined tale of Sorkin’s follow-up to The Social Network dealing with the origin story of Pinterest, and A Group of People Have a Conversation about Science and Religion Over the Internet, a transcription of actual comments between arguing users on a YouTube video.

After the run of Hyperreality Show, the plays will go up online for subscribers, and Douglass will begin looking to the future — an as-yet unconfirmed project in Chicago in

ON STAGE — AND SCREEN

P h o t o : R yan B lo m q u i s t

The four plays of Hyperreality Show include Fairytale Ending, an after-happilyever-after story.

November and getting the word out about Stagecloud.

By this time next year, his goal is for Stagecloud to have a strong national audience, a base from which the company can expand further, sharing more theater with more people, and making it more relevant in the process. “We don’t look at theater as being something that everyone enjoys anymore. … (People) don’t realize that theater can be contemporary,” Douglass says.

Hyperreality Show runs through Aug. 16 at Tenth Street Theatre, 628 N. 10th St., Milwaukee. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at stagecloudtheater.com or intandemtheatre.org. After the run of the show, Hyperreality Show will be available on Stagecloud’s website. Subscriptions are $2.99 a month; a free one-month trial is currently available.

WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

| August 13, 2015

‘Guys & Dolls’ closes Four Seasons’ 10th year

By Michael Muckian Contributing writer

Musical theater becomes more prevalent in the arts scene in every passing year, with even the most steadfastly disinclined companies adopting musicals as a component to their repertoire. At the head of the trend in Madison is Four Seasons Theatre. For 10 years, the company has played a major role in building up the genre in the capital, and they’ll wrap up a decade with one of the most iconic musicals of all: Guys and Dolls.

Since Four Seasons formed in 2005, the local theater scene has changed significantly, according to Sarah Marty. Marty is Four Seasons’ producing artistic director, as well as the general manager for Forward Theater, director for the Madison Early Music Festival and a faculty affiliate of the UW-Madison Arts Institute leading theater, arts management and entrepreneurship courses.

“When Four Seasons Theatre was founded in 2005, area theater companies might produce one musical every year or two,” Marty says. “Now the competition for performers, musicians and production team members is much tighter as other organizations have followed our lead and have added much more musical theater to their seasons.”

Utilizing the Union Theater, the Isthmus Playhouse and Overture Center (among other venues), Four Seasons has racked up an impressive performance history. From West Side Story (2007) and South Pacific (2010) to Rent (2011) and Les Miserables (2013), the troupe boasts an ambitious repertoire that shows no signs of slowing down.

“Since 2006, we have collaborated with the Wisconsin Union Theater on an annual large scale summer production,” Marty notes. “That culminated in 2014 as part of the theater’s reopening as Shannon Hall after a two-year renovation with a production of Kiss Me, Kate in honor of its 75th season.”

The Memorial Union Theater opened in 1939. Its inaugural production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, the source material on which Kate is based, featured Broadway luminaries (and Wisconsin summer residents) Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.

Four Seasons also supports a community outreach program, bringing scalable versions of its musical programs to a variety of audiences that would not otherwise have access to live musical theater. The actors and singers have performed at retirement communities, assisted living facilities, adult day centers, senior centers, schools and

ON STAGE

Four Seasons Theatre’s production of Guys and Dolls runs Aug. 21-23 in Shannon Hall of the Wisconsin Union Theatre in the UW Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St., on the UW campus.

For tickets, call 608-265-2787. For more information, visit fourseasonstheatre. com.

libraries.

For Guys and Dolls, director Miranda Hawk has pulled together a talented cast.

In addition to Abby and Jace Nichols, a reallife married couple playing romantic leads Sarah Brown and Sky Masterson, the cast includes Jessica Jane Witham (Adelaide), Michael Herold (Nathan Detroit) and Robert Goderich (Nicely-Nicely Johnson.) A 25-piece orchestra will accompany each performance, Marty says.

The 1950 Tony Award-winner for Best Musical, Guys and Dolls is the epitome of classic American musical theater, Marty says. With music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, the show is an adaptation of two Damon Runyon short stories about Prohibition-era New Yorkers.

The popularity of the show has endured, from Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1955 film adaptation with Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine, to the numerous West End and Broadway

Four Seasons’ New Season

While Four Seasons’ 2014–15 season is wrapping up later than the average company, they won’t be waiting long to jump into 2015–16. Before getting to fully staged productions, the fall will feature the first installments of two of Four Seasons’ smaller series. Musical Theatre Open Mic Night and Cabaret @ the Circle series.

The Musical Theatre Open Mic Nights are free events, allowing Broadway enthusiasts to belt out their favorite tunes with piano accompaniment. Open mic nights are scheduled for Oct. 1 and Jan. 28 at the Wisconsin Memorial Union’s Frederic March Play Circle, 800 Langdon St. Cabaret @ the Circle features Four Seasons’ own vocalists per-

revivals and national tours.

A slew of familiar songs came out of the musical, including “A Bushel and a Peck,” “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” and “If I Were a Bell.” The biggest number, “Luck Be A Lady,” sung by Brando in the film version, went on to become one of Sinatra’s signature concert tunes.

Loesser’s style as a composer, Marty notes, perfectly suited the story, which involved pretty criminals and professional gamblers in 1940s New York and the efforts of the Save-a-Soul Mission to convert the characters from their nefarious ways.

“Frank Loesser’s music and lyrics pulled from the big band style arrangements,” Marty explains. “The numbers lent themselves to the Great American Songbook, with tunes picked up and made popular by solo singers and big bands alike.”

Chances are it won’t take any luck, a lady or otherwise, to attract audiences to Four Seasons’ season closer later this month.

forming in an intimate cabaret style at The Play Circle. Themes are yet to be announced for this year’s events on Nov. 12 and on April 21.

Four Seasons’ first fully staged musical will be The Light in the Piazza. The bilingual musical about a girl who falls in love while she and her mother are summering in Italy will make its Madison premiere Dec. 4-13 at the Overture Center, 201 State St. In between musicals, the company will host Campus Music Theatre Idol, a competition between local singers with audience members choosing the winner.

The contest, co-produced with Madison’s Musicals to Remember, is on Feb. 18 at The Play Circle.

The season concludes with Spamalot, the Monty Python musical comedy that parodies the Arthurian Legend, much like its film predecessor Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The show runs Aug. 5-7 at the Overture Center.

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WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

| August 13, 2015

Secrets seen: John Wilde’s private collection at MOWA

By Kat Minerath

Contributing writer

The night is coming on in “Eventide at the Duchess’s.” The sky glows orange with an apocalyptic burn, familiar in the paintings of artist John Wilde (1919–2006). The sunset bathes a wild bunch of cavorting bodies.

Some couples embrace and others face off, while in other vignettes single figures dot the improbable landscape. A woman lounges on a gigantic leaf as another balances on a beach ball floating in water, or on a head sticking up from the ground. In the distance, with striking nonchalance, is the painter who busies himself working at his easel.

This painting is described by Museum of Wisconsin Art director Laurie Winters as “the last great painting of Wilde’s career,” completed the year before his death. Accompanied by numerous studies for the finished piece, it is one of the highlights of Wilde’s Wildes: A Very Private Collection.

The exhibition is a celebration of one of the key figures in the state’s art history and a peek into his personal collection. These are pictures that he hung on to, and have been brought together in an exhibition of about 80 pieces.

Waking up from a strange dream, you may spend a moment trying to recall the details of what was seen and experienced before those fragile, half-recognized bits slip away. For Wilde, this sort of imagery — and the boldness of bringing it into tangible line,

P h o t o : M u s e u m o f W i sc o ns i n A r t

John Wilde’s “Eventide at the Duchess’s” is considered by MOWA director Laurie Winters to be the last great painting of Wilde’s career, and is a highlight of Wilde’s Wildes. color, and form — was integral to his art Wilde was interested in surrealism and became canonized as a magic realist, something of a subgenre of surrealism. Imagination is an important ingredient in Wilde’s compositions, but even more so is his consummate skill as a draftsman.

Born in Milwaukee, Wilde lived most of his life in this state, eventually teaching at

the University of Wisconsin and settling into a home outside of Madison. He eschewed any sort of particularly regionalist flavor, as well as the modernist predilection for abstract painting. Enduring influences of northern European Renaissance masters such as Albrecht Dürer remained strongly in his embrace, and with the tones of sexuality and violence that sometimes play into his scenes, a bit of Hieronymus Bosch comes to mind.

The Dürer connection was formed early.

Dürer was an artistic superstar in his day, supremely confident and representing himself in a famously Christ-like self-portrait dated 1500 when he was 28 years old. In that oil painting, his hair is long and flowing, and he looks seriously at the viewer as his hand is cupped to his chest in a vague gesture of blessing.

Wilde borrowed a few bits from his predecessor in a charmingly brash self-portrait in pencil, done at the age of 19. There is something hippie-ish about Wilde’s look, with exceptionally long hair, a full mustache and striped shirt. He holds his hand to his body, strangely skeletal and decorated by numerous rings. It takes a moment to recall that when this picture it was drawn, it was 1939

— the fashion is distinctly ahead of his time.

Self-portraits were something that Wilde returned to, unflinchingly, through his career.

As his age wore on, the accoutrements fell away more and more in these selections on view. The process of time and its record through the drawn line become the expressive vehicle, rather than signifiers of identity marked through baubles and costumes.

Clothing falls away altogether in many of the exhibition’s works, often with a winking humor. Shirley Grilley married Wilde in 1969, after the death of his first wife. She was a model and a muse and certainly must have shared a playful side of character as seen in “S. with Raccoon (Shirley with Leonard).”

Nude except for a pair of sleek heeled boots, she is about to spiritedly swat away the pouncing forest creature with a giant leaf.

As this is the artist’s collection, there are a good number of delightful domestic scenes where the Wilde household appears like a freewheeling imaginarium.

Wilde is an intense artist in his precise rendering of the human form, and not negligent of the abstract, emotional side of life.

The complex psychologies and expressions of sexuality underlie numerous works, often overtly. “Jane and Joan Enter the Kingdom of Heaven” is one representation, where the duo’s entwined bodies float weightlessly in a bronzed atmosphere, among orbs decorated by spirals and geometric patterns in an orgasmic otherworld.

The world inside John Wilde’s head is one aspect that makes this exhibition so captivating, but it would not have the same power without his meticulous, elegant sense of craft. It has the feeling of a dream, remarkable for the invention of characters and settings from the artist’s private life that, presented to viewers, become part of their own memory.

On Display

Wilde’s Wildes: A Very Private Collection continues through Sept. 6 at the Museum of Wisconsin Art, 205 Veterans Ave., West Bend. The exhibition catalogue is available as a free download from wisconsinart.org.

WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

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| August 13, 2015

Art Gaze – Milwaukee Art, AIDS, Religion and Censorship

Milwaukee Art Museum 700 N. Art Museum Drive 6:15 p.m. Aug. 20 By now you may have heard a little something about a portrait of Pope Benedict XVI made from 17,000 multi-colored condoms.

Called Eggs Benedict, it is a stunning piece for its technical bravado and politically charged as it was made by artist Niki Johnson in 2013 as a response to the former pope’s declaration that condoms encourage the spread of AIDS in Africa.

The monumental piece was purchased by Joseph Pabst and donated to the Milwaukee Art Museum. It is now on view in the special exhibit, Art and the Global AIDS Crisis: Eggs Benedict.

A panel discussion on the ramifications of this work and its layers of interpretation will be held in the Lubar Auditorium.

Participants include Johnson, associate professor of visual studies at the University of Buffalo Jonathan Katz, theologian and National Catholic Reporter book editor and columnist Jamie Manson and associate professor of law at Marquette University Kali Murray. The discussion will be moderated by MAM chief curator, Brady Roberts.

— Kat Minerath

Niki Johnson’s Eggs Benedict, a portrait of former Pope Benedict XVI made of condoms, is a stunning, politically charged work, now on display at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

by Marc Camoletti, Translated by Beverly Cross & Francis Evans

August 13-30

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WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

| August 13, 2015

Art Gaze – Madison

Madison art examines war, climate change and teapots

By Michael Muckian Contributing writer

Art often reflects the most deeply held feelings and beliefs in the minds and hearts of artists — and, by extension, the audiences who view the work. Several new exhibits at Madison-area galleries speak to a variety of emotions, with many works even cathartic for their creators.

Wisconsin Veterans Museum

The horrors of war need to be experienced to be understood, but a number of military survivors have consigned their experiences to various art forms in an effort to promote their personal healing process. WAR : RAW – Healing Military Trauma Through Expressive Art is taking center stage at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum (30 W. Mifflin St., 608267-1799) on the Capitol Square.

The display, part of the Artists for the Humanities Return and Recovery Program for Military Veterans (a4th.org), offers 59 pieces of art created by artists coping with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. Utilizing paper, canvas, paintings, mosaics, quilts and sculpture, the Wisconsin veterans and artists have created a window into their recovery process, offering a glimpse into the grief and trauma that for them is a daily experience.

Much of the art is abstract, as if literal visualization were too painful to recreate. A great deal of it also is therapeutic. Part of the Return and Recovery Program’s approach is to combine art therapy with mental health counseling to help returning veterans cope with the anguish and despair of their wartime experiences.

WAR : RAW – Healing Military Trauma Through Expressive Art will be on display at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum through April 24, 2016. Admission to the museum and the exhibit is free.

Art court

There is still time to see Time for Tea: Contemporary Ceramic Teapots, on display through Aug. 31 in the Art Court of the Dane County Regional Airport (400 International Lane, 608-246-3380.)

The display, on loan from the Racine Art Museum, boasts 40 different ceramic teapots of both classic and contemporary design. Think of the works as practical counterpoints to the largely abstract and expressive ceramics works of the past half-century.

Here, form and function combine to create imaginative objects with practical purposes to which even the casual viewer can relate.

Artists such as Susan Beiner, Ah Leon, Louis Marak and Richard Shaw manipulate

P h oto : Co u rt e sy

The Flowers are Burning features a series of “incandescent watercolors” to imply fields of wildflowers ablaze in a world whose climate is rapidly changing. clay so that it begins to resemble other types of material. Their trompe l’oeil style (French for “fool the eye”) offers teapots sculpted from clay but which look as if they are made of a twisted tree branch or objects such as a suitcase, a pile of screws or even a shoe.

Other artists offer an even more abstract take on the traditional teapot.

The teapots included in this exhibition reflect a general interest in analyzing the past and a particular interest in exploring the idea of form and function. Best of all, the exhibit is located in the airport’s public area and visitors do not have to be ticketed passengers to view it.

Chazen Museum of Art

The French philosopher François de la Rochefoucauld noted that, except for their enormous vanity, heroes are like the rest of us. UW-Madison art professor Faisal Abdu’Allah appears to agree and illustrates the concept with his latest exhibition at the Chazen Museum of Art (750 University Ave., 608-263-2246) on the UW-Madison campus.

Squad: The Calling of the Common Hero, which opened July 24 in the Chazen’s Pleasant T. Rowland Gallery, consists of 11 largerthan-life portraits that explore and critique the concept and visage of the superhero in modern society. Smaller works using human hair accompany the portraits and further comment on the physiological image of identity.

The exhibit, which develops themes explored in British-born Abdu’Allah’s 2007 show in London and 2010 exhibit at Stanford University, concerns itself with materiality, iconography and alchemy. Two additional works, “The Last Supper I” and “The Last

Supper II,” created in 2011 as photo-realistic tapestries, accompany the oversized photographic portraits.

Squad: The Calling of the Common Hero is on exhibit through Sept. 27.

Overture Center

Art as activism is a familiar tradition, but the current exhibit by artists/activists Mary Kay Neumann and Helen Klebesadel offers an interpretation of climate change that’s more vivid than usual.

The Flowers are Burning: Incandescent Watercolors opened July 3 at the Playhouse Gallery in Overture Center for the Arts (201 State St., 608-258-4144). The 15 large-format images use the color saturation and flow to which watercolors naturally lend themselves to create striking visual statements that imply, if not directly illustrate, fields of wild flowers aflame in a climatically changing world. Klebesadel’s “Prairie Fire II,” one of the exhibit’s most emblematic works, uses bright yellows and oranges punctuated with a blue-green hub of flame to make its message dramatically clear.

The exhibit features individual works as well as jointly produced images that the artists say have distinct feminist overtones.

When not painting, Neumann is a psychotherapist specializing in trauma and Klebesadel is the director of the Women and Gender Studies Consortium for the UW. The impact of their professional lives on their artistic efforts is evident and gives added power to the work.

All of the paintings in The Flowers are Burning: Incandescent Watercolors are for sale, with 10 percent of the proceeds to be donated to environmental organizations.

The exhibit is on display through Sept. 2.

WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

| August 13, 2015

Defying Hollywood conventions in ‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl’

By Lindsay Bahr AP film writer

When you make a film where a 15-yearold girl sleeps with her mother’s 35-year-old boyfriend, a few things are certain: You’re going to make some people uncomfortable and you’re going to get feedback. A lot of it.

But first time director Marielle Heller knew what she wanted for The Diary of a Teenage Girl, and it didn’t involve ensuring people were comfortable.

Heller’s adaptation of Phoebe Gloeckner’s graphic novel looks at teenage sexuality from the point of view of the teenager. There’s no judgment. There’s just the story of aspiring artist Minnie Goetze (Bel Powley), a 1970s San Francisco teen with a neglectful, hard-partying single mother (Kristin Wiig) and a yearning for self-actualization. When her mom’s boyfriend Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard) opens the door to an intimate encounter, Minnie jumps right in.

Even the first line of the film proved controversial to some: “I had sex today.”

“Most movies would have spent the first 30 minutes getting to know the character before she had sex,” Heller says.

Many advised Heller to consider that approach.

“For Minnie, that’s where this chapter of her life begins,” she says. A long intro would have only been there to satisfy screenwriting conventions and to coax audiences into the story.

People also suggested standard Hollywood plot contrivances, like having Minnie end up with a boy her own age at the end, which wholly contradicted the point of the story. This was a story about Minnie’s journey to self-acceptance outside of male validation, she thought.

“We’re in a place where for so, so, so long men have been controlling movies,” Heller said. “I’m not saying it’s some major, master, malicious plan, but I do think there is a serious lack of comfort when it comes to talking about young women and their sexuality.”

It was a blessing then that Heller, a writer and actress, found a financier — international production company Caviar — that gave her the freedom to execute her vision, even if it was on a shoestring budget with lots of help from friends and family.

Most essential, though, was finding the perfect Minnie.

Heller, who’d played the part on stage, had a seemingly impossible list of qualities that she needed an actress to satisfy: To look young but also old; to be an every woman but incredibly special; to be believable as a comic book nerd; and to be beautiful and sexually confident but still exude the awkwardness of a teenager. Powley stood out as the rare embodiment of all those contradictions.

Now 23, British actor Powley had been sending tapes to the United States for years and hadn’t booked anything. When she put her name in for Minnie, she wasn’t expect-

P h o t o : S o n y P i c t u r e s C l ass i c

Director Marielle Heller’s debut The Diary of a Teenage Girl depicts a ‘70s San Francisco teen exploring her sexuality — from her point of view. ing much, but she’d never read a role that resonated with her so deeply.

Simply, it reminded her of being a teenager, and that alone was revolutionary.

“I think there’s such a vicious cycle surrounding teenage girls and female sex. People are scared of it, so they won’t talk about it and people don’t talk about it because they’re scared of it,” says Powley. “I wanted to be part of this project which was going to potentially break that cycle.”

Once she was cast, she and Heller decided to forgo agents and managers and lawyers and “nudity riders” and work something out together. Trust was essential.

“I think having a female director was really important to her and me being an actor meant that I knew what I was asking her to do,” Heller says. “I’ve been topless in a play.

I know how hard that is. I knew what I was asking of her and she felt that.”

Part of that trust came from knowing they both had the same objective.

“We wanted to make a movie about com-

ing-of-age and exploring sexuality,” Powley said. “We didn’t want to make a movie about a 15-year-old fu**ing a 35-year-old man.”

While the relationship between Minnie and Monroe is controversial on paper, on screen it’s never presented as exploitative.

“The movie is all told from Minnie’s point of view. If she doesn’t feel it’s creepy, we shouldn’t feel it’s creepy,” Heller said.

In an effort to ensure that the film reaches its intended audience, Heller worked to secure an R-rating. She wouldn’t disclose the changes, but said that they didn’t compromise the integrity of the film.

“I was very surprised by how well it went,” she said, especially considering the fact that, in the U.K., it was slapped with an “18” rating — which both Heller and Powley found dismaying.

“A board of men decided that this movie was not suitable for young women,” Heller said. “Nobody tries to shelter young men from the realities of the world. Why do we try to shelter young women?”

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The Sets List Al Jarreau

‘80s Vs. ‘90s: Michael Jackson Birthday Edition 10 p.m. Aug. 21, at the Majestic Theater, Madison. $5, free in Michael Jackson costume. majesticmadison.com.

8 p.m. Aug. 21 at Potawatomi’s Northern Lights Theater, Milwaukee. $59 to $69. paysbig.com.

This Potawatomi show marks jazz singer Al Jarreau’s return to his home city of Milwaukee, but that won’t be the only reason it’ll be a special evening. His latest album, My Old Friend, serves as a tribute to the late George Duke, a kindred spirit to Jarreau who introduced him to the Brazilian jazz style both would become associated with. Duke helped Jarreau get his start in San Francisco, inviting him to join his jazz trio for three years, and that gesture would lead Jarreau to a career full of Grammy wins and numerous other accolades.

You can always count on a Majestic ‘80s vs. ‘90s party being a blast, but when it’s a Michael Jackson-themed anniversary bash? It’ll be thrilling, dangerous and “bad” — in the best way. DJs Nick Nice and BROOK will square off with a combination of Jackson’s discography and those of his contemporaries, as well as hosting a moonwalk competition and happy birthday singalong at midnight. Single white glove optional.

Dusty Medical 10th Anniversary Fest

Aug. 27 to 30, multiple locations, Milwaukee. $7 to $15, $42 for a five-night pass.

All those bands you love? They’ve got a record label behind them. And one of the longest-running labels based in Milwaukee, rock and punk label Dusty Medical, has hit its 10th anniversary.

This is an occasion certainly worth celebrating, for the label that brought us garage rock band The Goodnight Loving, psych pop group The Midwest Beat, and Reigning Sound frontman Greg Cartwright, among others. Over four days, 17 acts (including the reunited Goodnight Loving) will play sets for the label that helped them get where they are and give Milwaukee a great series of shows in the process. Check out Dusty Medical’s Facebook page for a full list of venues and schedules.

Music reviews Dr. Dre :: ‘Compton’

Just as hip-hop legend Dr. Dre announced that Detox — the legendary album he’s been working on for more than 15 years — had finally been scrapped, he released a whole new project: Compton, named for the LA neighborhood he calls home. He’s also promised it will be his last.

The new release coincides with the upcoming biopic Straight Outta Compton, which tells the story of Dre’s legendary hip-hop group N.W.A. The biggest question about Compton is whether Dre still has the goods after so many years. The answer is yes. Compton isn’t groundbreaking in the manner of Dre’s solo debut The Chronic but it’s well worth hearing — and, with frequent appearances by fellow Compton artist Kendrick Lamar, it feels like a passing of the torch too.

Luke Bryan :: ‘Kill the Lights’

Kill the Lights strongly suggests that country superstar Luke Bryan realizes, at age 39, it’s time to move past his role as the standard bearer of “bro country.” That gradual move into maturity makes the album his best. Songs like the title cut show off contemporary country’s increasing embrace of EDM and the ‘80s pop of Bryan’s own childhood. He trades lead vocals and shots at exes with Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild on “Home Alone Tonight.” On “Strip It Down” he finds a decidedly adult and sexy groove celebrating rural monogamy. There is more here than meets the eye, and Bryan shows he deserves to stay on top.

Ivy Levan :: ‘No Good’ Fifth Harmony

7 p.m. Aug. 21 at the Riverside Theater, Milwaukee. $30, $40 or $50. pabsttheater.org.

One Direction blew up quickly after their tenure on the UK version of The X-Factor, but their closest American equivalent, Fifth Harmony, has been on a low boil since leaving the show in 2012.

With “Worth It,” the aggressively feminist summer anthem that’s become ubiquitous on pop radio, the five-person girl group may be finally bubbling over.

Time will tell whether they can earn a place alongside the likes of other iconic acts like the Spice Girls or the Pussycat Dolls, but at least for 2015, they’ve got the zeitgeist on lock. Common Kings, Natalie LaRose and Bea Miller open.

Arkansas native Ivy Levan scored a breakthrough earlier this year when the aggressive swamp pop of her single “Biscuit” (and its tongue-in-cheek use of the word to refer to oral sex) found it eagerly embraced in dance clubs and gay bars. The fulllength album proves the single was no fluke. “Misery” has a smoky, reflective tone, and on the Sting duet “Killing You,” she admits to hurting the one that she loves. No Good is firmly planted in contemporary pop and dance music, but Ivy Levan’s unique voice and swagger make her debut stand out from the crowd.

Grace Potter :: ‘Midnight’

Jimmy Buffett

7 p.m. Aug. 22 at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy. $36 to $136. livenation.com.

The moving city-state of mind Margaritaville will take root at Alpine Valley this month, bringing with it presidentfor-life Jimmy Buffett. He and his Coral Reefer Band will return to the venue for a visit with Wisconsin’s Parrotheads, who can expect the usual bounty of classics like “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” “Come Monday” and more. ‘80s blueeyed-soul outfit Huey Lewis and the News will open.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals are known for a sometimes bombastic rock approach with a touch of soul. After four successful albums, Potter expands her pallette with the solo debut Midnight, embracing a wide range of pop-rock influences.

Some of the Nocturnals are on hand for instrumental support, but it’s producer Eric Valentine, a veteran of work with pop punk groups like Good Charlotte and All-American Rejects, who gives the music a new, energizing kick. From the 1980s Minneapolis Sound influence on “Delirious” to the big swaying rock chorus of “Hot To the Touch,” Grace Potter is re-invigorating her career.

— Bill Lamb

WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM

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Pay attention, pet lovers: Sirius, the Dog Star, has returned to the sky, and with it comes a pack of troubles. Don’t get me wrong — this puppy is a cute, snuggly binary star system if there ever was one, even if the little scamp is 8.6 light-years away.

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Back to School ACROSS 1. Bewildered or confounded 6. Cul de ____ 9. Rum cake 13. Church bell sounds 14. Anger 15. Give a green light 16. Dogma 17. ___ Aviv 18. Cancer sign?

19. *Higher education result 21. *L in LMC 23. “Yakety ____” 24. W.’s advisor 25. Tube in old TV 28. *Classroom pests 30. Catching sight of something 35. Jack and the Beanstalk instrument 37. ____ Scotia 39. Ownership document 40. Sixth month of civil year 41. *Classroom ball 43. It’s a long story 44. Fat or wax 46. Kindred 47. Resembling wings 48. Destiny 50. Volcano in Sicily 52. Japanese capital 53. *You work with it in shop class 55. *Where most of American History

occurred 57. *Difference between public and private school 61. *”____ and (#34 Down)” 64. Saw logs 65. Like arctic air 67. *Digital text 69. *He’s in the class play 70. *Driver’s Ed classroom 71. Kitchen appliance 72. “The ____ Not Taken” 73. Lamb’s mother 74. Iron Mike DOWN 1. Pertinent 2. Got ready to drive 3. Healthy 4. Lament for the dead 5. Stellar 6. Place or location 7. “We ___ the World” 8. *Usually in orchestra but not marching band 9. Foggy view?

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We posted... you commented...

Walker’s inability to manage his personal finances speaks volumes Mayshell Giles: Yes it does if you can’t take of your own money how in the hell can you handle this country budge.

Feedback from our digital platforms. facebook.com/ wigazette @wigazette

Terri Peterson Schreiner: This needs to go national so people can see what he is!

Tris Lahti: This is probably the only time I will defend Walker. His credit card debt is hardly different from what a lot of people have. And now, for the hypocrisy: if he was a millionaire, we’d condemn him for that!

Just what do you want? A person in debt, like most of us are, a millionaire, who can buy votes, or someone else, and if “someone else,” just would their financial situation look like?

Wisconsin lawmaker proposes Justice David Prosser says his $2.6M haul from exotic animal ban John Doe defendants had no influence on him, because that was four years ago Carole Schleiss: Those animals should not be domesticated anyway.

They are not pets.

Dave Johnson: This just in. Teenage boy says sex has no role in his decision making....

Karen Pierce: At minimum, owners of exotic animals should be licensed and periodically checked up on to show they are providing the kind of living environment a particular animal requires.

Jill Hix: Yesterday I wrote a letter to my local paper about this “4 years ago” nonsense. The only way to get the information out to more people here in WI is to do it ourselves. We’ve got to keep it up constantly until the next election. Walker, legislators, Ron Johnson, the judges, whatever. We’ve got to keep shining a light on the corruption, lies and general crap they say & do.

Mary Miller: wild animals are wild. Leave them in their natural environment Suzanne Brown: Ok, one smart move for a Republican. Let’s do it and get rid of puppy mills too

Ivan F. Waupoose Jr.: Kind of like police saying we have opened an investigation into ourselves, our conclusion is we found no evidence we committed any crime Rich Jacobson: Gee, does that mean I don’t have to pay my car loan because it’s over four years old?

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