Aug. 27, 2015 - Wisconsin Gazette

Transcription

AltWeekly Award-winner Best Cover Design, 2015
From stream to
stage Comedian Jen
Kirkman talks about her
Netflix special and
stand-up tour. page 31
August 27, 2015 | Vol. 6 No. 20
Hungry for
food that
embodies
values
pages 9-11
4 Undoing gerrymandering
Wisconsin’s
GOP is fighting
a lawsuit seeking to overturn
its partisan
redistricting
of the state
following the
2010 census.
34 APT examines evil
The line between heroism and
villainy is razor-thin in the
company’s production of ‘Othello.’
6 Cleaning up a bad deal
Activists want Dane County to
revoke a permit for a pipeline
project backed by the GOP.
38 An artist’s studio as art itself
Madison’s Natasha Nicholson
recreates her personal workspace
at MMoCA.
2
WISCONSINGAZETTE.COM
News with a twist
The cat’s meow
Trump’s image
appears in tub
of butter
A Wildwood, Missouri,
woman is said to have
nearly lost her lunch when
she opened a new tub of
Earth Origins Organic
Spread and saw the image
of Donald Trump staring
back at her. “I needed
to put on my glasses to
make sure it was him,” Jan
Castellano, 63, told The
Huffington Post. Castellano
briefly considered selling
the butter tub on eBay and
donating the proceeds to
Hillary Clinton. But hunger
won out over politics, and
Trump’s face ended up on
her breakfast toast.
The mayor in St.
Paul, Minnesota, threw
out a ceremonial
ball of yarn to mark
the opening of an annual
festival for cat videos that
drew thousands of feline
fanatics to a city stadium.
Mayor Chris Coleman said
13,000 people were at
CHS Field for the Internet
Cat Video Festival. Videos
played on the stadium’s
large scoreboard as people
watched from the stands
and blankets in the outfield.
Selections included clips of
a cat startling a bear and
a scene from Jurassic Park
edited to include giant cats.
Papal pale ale
Cape May Brewing Co. in
Cape May, New Jersey, has
concocted a special beverage for when Pope Francis
visits the United States in
September. The brewery is
producing 500 gallons of
YOPO — You Only Pope
Once — a hoppy pale ale
available only on draft. A
CMB sales rep said the ale
| August 27, 2015
WiGWAG
pairs well with
Argentinean beef.
Worse than
bedbugs?
A Days Inn employee
said her boss instructed
her to flip a mattress rather
than replace it after she
reported a guest died in
the bed. The revelation was
part of a racial discrimination lawsuit filed July 30
by a dozen former African-American employees
against a Tampa, Florida,
Days Inn franchisee. They
accuse Jamil Kassim of
using racial slurs against
them and firing them
because of their race. The
employees also say they
were told to ignore health
and safety policies and to
clean up blood, vomit and
other hazardous fluids.
walking down
the aisle
A vow renewal ceremony for high-wire daredevil
Nik Wallenda and his wife
Erendira was featured on
the TLC show Say Yes to
the Dress. When the couple
originally married, income
limited them to a simple
courthouse
ceremony.
Since then, Wallenda’s
become famous for televised skywalks across Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon
and Chicago skyscrapers.
He’s now rich enough to
have a lavish wedding,
which he did in January
at a museum in Sarasota,
Florida. In August, Wallenda completed his longest
tightrope walk — 1,576 feet
— during an appearance at
the Wisconsin State Fair.
By Lisa Neff and Louis Weisberg
dingy white tank tops?
Miracles of nature
University of Wisconsin
students are returning to
campus for the fall term,
but don’t think researchers took the summer off. A
bulletin arrived from UWMadison in mid-August
under the headline, “More
details on origin of favorite beer-making microbe.”
Genetics scientist and
yeast expert Chris Hittinger
has led a team that says
the crucial genetic mashup
that spawned the yeast
that brews the vast majority of beer occurred at least
Tournament
twice. And both times withof rednecks
An event that was known out human help, despite
as the Redneck Olympics what those 15th-century
before the Olympics threat- Bavarian monks may have
ened legal action took place claimed.
in Maine earlier this summer. “Athletes” competed High on
in a greased watermelon his own selfie
haul, tossed toilet seats,
Police say a 25-year-old
bobbed for pigs feet, and man was arrested after he
held a tug-of-war in a mud climbed a 10-story conpit. They also had an event struction crane in downcalled a “wife haul.” Hmm. town Madison and took a
Were they uniformed in selfie. The man was arrest-
ed for criminal trespass on
a construction site.
Creepy real estate
A Pennsylvania couple is
looking to sell the threestory Victorian that was
used as the home of psychotic killer Buffalo Bill in
the 1991 film The Silence
of the Lambs. The basement dungeon where the
killer kept one would-be
victim, however, doesn’t
exist. Those scenes were
shot on a soundstage.
Still, agent Dianne Wilk is
hopeful someone will pay
$300,000 for the home.
“People love to be scared. I
could see somebody doing
something fun with this,”
she said.
Making headlines
Sometimes the headline
tells the story. And here’s
one from The Associated
Press bureau in North Carolina: “Man in ax-wielding
clown case turns himself
in.”
VAN GOGH to
POllOck
MOderN rebels
Masterworks froM the
albright-knox art gallery
Vincent van Gogh, La Maison de la Crau (The Old Mill), 1888 (detail). Collection of Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. Bequest of A. Conger Goodyear, 1966.
This exhibition was initiated by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, and was organized by Albright-Knox Chief
Curator Emeritus Douglas Dreishpoon. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
clOsiNG sePt 20
SEPTEMBER 9 • T URNER
JEN KIRKMAN
SEPTEMBER 9
PABST LOWER LEVEL
BÉLA FLECK &
ABIGAIL WASHBURN
WISHBONE ASH
SEPTEMBER 11 • RIVERSIDE
PENN & TELLER
MONDO LUCHA
MYSTIC INDIA
DESAPARECIDOS
HEARTLESS
BASTARDS
SEPTEMBER 29 • PABST
BRANDI CARLILE
THE GROWLERS
OCTOBER 1 • TURNER
DAVID ALLAN COE
BLUES TRAVELER
OCTOBER 3 • PABST
LAST COMIC
STANDING LIVE
U2ZOO * TALLYMOORE
COUNTRY IN
THE CITY
KELSEA BALLERINI,
MICHAEL RAY, BELLA CAIN
THE DISTRICTS
BLITZEN TRAPPER
STUFF YOU SHOULD
KNOW LIVE
BEYOND THE BLUES
& BARBECUE
HANNIBAL BURESS
ST. LOUIS JESUITS
JOHN HIATT
NOVEMBER 5 • T URNER
AND
FM102/1 PRESENTS
ADLER’S FALL
COMEDY CLASSIC WITH
THE SKLAR BROTHERS,
NIKKI GLASER &
BRODY STEVENS
YOUTH LAGOON
OCTOBER 20 • PABST
ZOLTÁN MÁGA
MARY CHAPIN
CARPENTER
MELANIE MARTINEZ
ARLO GUTHRIE
OCTOBER 23, 24 & 25
RIVERSIDE
WIDESPREAD PANIC
3 NIGHTS!
IN THE VALLEY
BELOW
LANGHORNE SLIM
& THE LAW
MATISYAHU
OCTOBER 9 • RIVERSIDE
CALEXICO
RUSSELL PETERS
OCTOBER 9 & 10 • PABST
2 SHOWS!
CRISS ANGEL
PRESENTS THE
SUPERNATURALISTS
BEN RECTOR
3 NIGHTS!
BEACH HOUSE
FUNK VOLUME 2015 TOUR
WITH HOPSIN,
DIZZY WRIGHT,
JARREN BENTON,
DJ HOPPA AND MORE
RALPHIE MAY
METROPOLITAN
OPERA RISING STARS
CONCERT SERIES
LITTLE BIG TOWN
BILL BURR
LETTUCE
LUCINDA WILLIAMS
DENNIS DEYOUNG
THE MUSIC OF ST Y X
THE STING CHEESE
INCIDENT
JJ GREY AND MOFRO
NOVEMBER 6 • PABST
MAC D E MARCO
JOSEPH FINK &
JEFFREY CR ANOR
PETER YARROW &
NOEL PAUL STOOKEY
OF PETER PAUL AND MARY
THE SUBDUDES
RING OF HONOR
WRESTLING
NOVEMBER 14 • RIVERSIDE
JACKSON BROWNE
JIM GAFFIGAN
3 SHOWS!
JANUARY 22 • RIVERSIDE
THE TENORS
DORIAN GRAY
2 WEEKENDS!
MARCH 5 • PABST
K ATHLEEN MADIGAN
2 SHOWS!
STEVE EARLE
AND THE DUKES
EL VY
FEAT.
MATT BERNINGER
(THE NATIONAL) &
THE PRINCE
EXPERIENCE
UMPHREY’S MCGEE
DECEMBER 5 • RIVERSIDE
THE ULTIMATE
TRIBUTE
2 SHOWS!
DECEMBER 29, 30 & 31 • PABST
GUSTER
LOUIS PRIMA JR.
& THE WITNESSES
FAB FOUR
CIRQUE DREAMS
HOLIDAZE
OCTOBER 29, 30 & 31
RIVERSIDE
DECEMBER 20 • T URNER
3 SHOWS!
HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
FEAT. THE MILWAUKEE
SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
FEBRUARY 12 - 21 • PABST
HALLOWEEN RUN 2015
CELTIC WOMAN
DECEMBER 26 & 27 • RIVERSIDE
WELCOME TO
NIGHT VALE
LIVE ON STAGE
HOUNDMOUTH
DECEMBER 11 • T URNER
MEN OF THE STRIP
(R AMONA FALLS,
MENOMENA)
THIS CHRISTMAS
THE DIGITOUR
SLAYBELLS
BRENT KNOPF
MISTERWIVES
MICHAEL
MCDONALD
THE
CHARLATANS
ALVIN &
THE CHIPMUNKS
MELISSA ETHERIDGE
COLIN HAY
LUCERO
GORDON LIGHTFOOT
SEPTEMBER 19
CATHEDR AL SQUARE
NOVEMBER 3 • RIVERSIDE
AMERICA’S TEST
KITCHEN LIVE
LYLE LOVETT
AND BAND
TASTE OF IRELAND
& HIS ALL STARR BAND
THE LONE BELLOW
CHRIS ROBINSON
BROTHERHOOD
MAINSTAGE
RINGO STARR
THE MOTH
MARK KNOPFLER
3
| August 27, 2015
JEFF
FOXWORTHY
AND LARRY THE
CABLE GUY
2 SHOWS!
HEART
OCTOBER 26
COLECTIVO COFFEE
MADISEN WARD
AND THE MAMA
BEAR
NOVEMBER 6
COLECTIVO COFFEE
NELS CLINE
STAINED
RADIANCE WITH
NORTON WISDOM
NOVEMBER 14
COLECTIVO COFFEE
RISK!
LIVE PODCAST
NOVEMBER 20
COLECTIVO COFFEE
ANDREA GIBSON
4
| August 27, 2015
GOP fights challenge to gerrymandered Assembly map
By Lisa Neff
Staff writer
The Wisconsin Department of Justice
wants a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit
challenging the redistricting map drawn by
lawmakers to the benefit of the GOP.
Meanwhile, a grassroots petition drive
aimed at revamping the redistricting process is getting attention in the state. The
petition circulating on the Web by the nonpartisan group Common Cause Wisconsin
calls on lawmakers to remove politics from
redistricting decisions.
Every 10 years, state legislatures redraw
the boundaries of state and federal political districts based on the results of a
new U.S. Census. The intent is to reflect
changes in population and ensure fair representation — one person, one vote.
But in many states, like Wisconsin, lawmakers draw the districts in a way that
favors their parties.
There now are several skirmishes over
redistricting maps drawn and adopted
after the 2010 census, including in:
• Florida, where a court ruled that the
Florida Legislature violated a pair of 2010
state constitutional amendments banning
partisan redistricting. The Florida House
adopted a map on Aug. 18 that contained
changes for all 27 of the state’s congressional districts.
• Virginia, where a federal court will
redraw the state’s congressional districts
after it became clear that lawmakers
would fail to reach agreement on redistricting by a court-mandated Sept. 1
deadline.
• North Carolina, where legislators are
working on a redo of the state’s congressional map under court order.
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, a federal lawsuit filed earlier this summer challenges
the 2010 state Assembly map, alleging the
map benefits Republicans and the boundary lines were drawn in secret, at the
offices of a law firm hired by GOP leaders.
The 30-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Madison on behalf of 12
Democrats, alleges the map is “one of the
worst gerrymanders in modern American history.” The Democrats argue that
gerrymandering is unconstitutional and
profoundly undemocratic. The complaint
seeks a review by a panel of three judges
that could put the dispute on a fast track
to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice,
which is headed by Republican Attorney
General Brad Schimel, filed a motion to
dismiss the challenge in mid-August. The
state argues:
• Plaintiffs do not have standing unless
they live in a gerrymandered district.
• No standard exists for measuring the
impact of a gerrymander on the right to
legislative representation.
However, a report from Common Cause
Wisconsin suggests an obvious measurement — election results.
In the first election after redistricting,
Republicans won 60 of 99 Assembly seats
but Democrats won a majority of the statewide votes cast in Assembly races.
Also, a CCW report released earlier
this summer shows that Wisconsin state
legislative races in 2014 were far less competitive than those in 2010. Only 10.3 percent of winning candidates defeated their
opponents by less than 10 percent in 2014.
Four years earlier, before the new map was
drawn, about 23.3 percent of races were
within 10 points.
While the legal fight over the current
map continues in federal court, CCW is
encouraging lawmakers to pass legislation
that would create a nonpartisan process
for redrawing boundaries. Common Cause
is a nonprofit dedicated to good government and accountability.
CCW encourages Wisconsin voters
to support the nonpartisan redistricting
effort via a petition.
“As Wisconsinites, voters and constituents, we call on you to reform Wisconsin’s
current partisan redistricting system,” the
petition states. “We look to you, our elected representatives, to bring competition
back to Wisconsin’s elections, ensuring
that voters have a real choice at the polls,
by removing politics from — and restoring transparency to — a process that has
become far too partisan, secretive and
expensive.”
The petitioners propose a process similar to one that Iowa implemented in 1981,
in which legislative boundaries are drawn
by a nonpartisan state agency.
The goal for Wisconsin would be to
establish such a process in time for redistricting after the 2020 U.S. Census.
Common Cause and other good-government groups are pushing reform in other
states, including Ohio, where voters on
Nov. 3 will decide a ballot initiative intended to reduce partisanship in redistricting.
In November 2016, Illinois voters could
consider a constitutional amendment to
create a citizens commission to draw legislative districts. In Indiana, a newly created
legislative commission is studying redistricting options.
Reform efforts also are underway in
Minnesota, where gridlock over redistricting has resulted in court-drawn maps for
decades.
Same-sex couples sue for equal parenting rights
By Lisa Neff
Staff writer
The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this summer cleared the way for marriage equality
across the United States, but a lot of antigay rubbish still litters legislative statutes
and bureaucratic regulations.
Same-sex couples in some locales continue to fight for marriage licenses, despite
the high court’s ruling. And in some states,
married gay couples continue quests for
equal treatment as parents, as well as
equal treatment in the workplace, health
care, education and accommodations.
Fifteen years ago, Mississippi lawmakers banned same-sex couples from adopting children and taking children into foster
care. The law, staunchly supported by
Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, is the only
one of its kind in the United States. In
early August, four lesbian couples went
to federal court and sued Mississippi to
overturn the ban.
“The Mississippi adoption ban is an outdated relic of a time when courts and legislatures believed that it was somehow OK
to discriminate against gay people simply
because they are gay,” the lawsuit states.
Meanwhile, two lesbian couples are
suing the state of Florida, which refuses to
acknowledge same-sex couples as parents
on birth certificates.
“Attorney General Pam Bondi could
have avoided yet another costly lawsuit
by directing all state agencies to simply
comply with the law,” said Nadine Smith,
executive director of Equality Florida, a
statewide LGBT advocacy group.
Bondi maintained her defense of Florida’s anti-gay ban on same-sex marriage
long after it was clear state and federal
judges considered the ban unconstitutional, and she continues to sanction state discrimination against married gay couples.
“Birth certificates are the first official
document that represent a newborn baby’s
family,” Smith said. “Having an inaccurate
birth certificate hinders parents’ ability to
take care of their child and access important legal benefits and protections.”
Larry Dupuis, legal director for the ACLU
of Wisconsin, said continued vigilance is
needed, even after the high court’s ruling.
“There is still a lot of educating and a lot of
litigating to do,” he said.
In Wisconsin, there apparently haven’t
been complaints that the state refuses to
recognize same-sex couples on birth certificates. Wisconsin also has recognized
that same-sex couples have the same right
as different-sex couples to adopt children.
“Since the Wolf decision was affirmed,
the state has taken the position that samesex couples can adopt on the same terms
as different-sex couples, and there’s no
longer a prohibition on adoption,” Dupuis
said, referring to the ACLU of Wisconsin’s
federal case that secured marriage equality in the state. “Before Wolf, the secondparent adoption had not been allowed in
Wisconsin. So that was a big change.”
5
| August 27, 2015
Reject taxpayer subsidies for Bucks ‘entertainment’ mall
Opinion
Virginia Small
The bill that provides
state funding for the Milwaukee Bucks arena also
gives the team owners the
right to build arena “public plazas,” which would be
used to generate revenue
exclusively for the team.
The city proposes spending $20 million to create
these misnomered “public spaces” to enrich the
Bucks, not to serve public
interests. They would help
expand a Bucks-controlled
entertainment monopoly,
as mandated by the NBA.
According to State Bill
209, Section 229.46, “The
professional basketball
team or its affiliate shall
be entitled to receive all
revenues related to the
operation or use of the
sports and entertainment
arena facilities, including,
but not limited to, ticket
revenues, licensing or user
fees, sponsorship revenues,
revenues generated from
events that are held on the
plaza that is part of the
sports and entertainment
arena facilities, revenues
from the sale of food, beverages, merchandise, and
parking, and revenues from
naming rights.”
Among the alarming
implications of this clause
is that no festival or market
could be held on these plazas by any vendors except
the Bucks or their affiliates.
“Free” concerts and other
events would be hosted
solely to increase revenue
streams for the Bucks.
The now-public spaces
to be co-opted are Fourth
Street between Highland and Juneau and the
city-owned Fourth Street
garage. The city would
hand over the well-kept
garage to the Bucks, pay
to raze it and forgo nearly
$1 million a year in parking revenue. Then the city
would pay $35 million to
build a new garage and
split the income with the
Bucks. (At first, the Bucks
You can help prevent this from
happening by lobbying officials
or email [email protected].
In addition, you can attend the public
before the final vote is taken, possibly hearings in Room 301-B of City Hall,
200 E. Wells St. Citizens will be allowed
as soon as Sept. 22.
Contact your alderpersons at 414- to speak briefly. The schedule is:
4 p.m. Aug. 31: The comptroller’s
286-2221. You also can call Mayor
Tom Barrett’s office at 414-286-2200 report on subsidy costs and other
demanded all income.)
This proposal really
creates a third tier in our
beleaguered park system.
In addition to different calibers of parks for haves and
have-nots, we are starting
to have privately controlled
public spaces. Who in fact
owns and controls these
pseudo-public parks?
The state, county and
city are already giving 30
now-public acres to the
hedge-fund moguls who
own the Bucks. Thus far,
no government entity has
mandated the creation of
anything to benefit taxpayers in return — nor has
public input been sought.
“BucksTown Plaza” will
have nothing in common
with Chicago’s Millennium
Park, where people are free
Proud Founding Member of
LGBT Chamber of Commerce.
to carry in food and drinks
and enjoy a wide range of
free programming for all
ages, 365 days a year. Brave
New World Fourth Street
will serve other gods.
The Common Council
can hold the line on how
many more public assets
taxpayers will hand over to
the Bucks. Instead of these
extravagant giveaways,
alderpersons can reject
this proposal and push to
start over and renegotiate
a better deal. They can support only the arena and not
the pseudo-public spaces,
which will house strip-mall
chain restaurants. That will
only help to destroy downtown Milwaukee’s unique
charm and compete unfairly with nearby local businesses.
5th Generation
Starts Now!
Sale Ends Mon. Sept. 7th at 6pm.
SMALL
SCALE
LOW PRICE GUARANTEE!
2
29(5%8,/7
$1'
81'(535,&('
©BRF
5430 W. Layton Ave.
Greeneld, WI 53220
414-238-2020
BiltRiteFurniture.com
Weekdays 10-8 | Sat 10-5 | Sun 11-5
SPECIAL HOURS:
SATURDAYS 10 am - 6 pm
LABOR DAY
MONDAY, SEPT. 7TH 10 am - 6 pm
What to tell city officials:
1. Do not tear down the city-owned Fourth Street
garage and forego nearly $1 million a year in revenue
by giving the site to Bucks’ owners for their privately
owned “entertainment” mall. If we don’t tear down the
garage, we won’t need to build a replacement two blocks
away at a cost of $35 million.
2. Do not accept the 50-50 split in revenue from the
proposed new garage after paying 100 percent of its
building costs.
3. Do not give the Bucks public assistance to oversaturate the local tavern market. The Bucks mall would
siphon business from about 60 restaurants and bars
near the arena, especially on Old World Third and Water
streets.
4. Do not hand over for free the 1-acre Sydney Hih
lot, appraised for $1 million, to Bucks owners to do with
as they please. Instead, sell it for full market price to a
developer with an immediate, viable plan.
5. Reject this mall plan and so-called public plazas
designed to exclusively generate revenue for Bucks owners. Designate that city subsidies support only arena
construction.
— Virginia Small
SALE
Jordan
SPECIAL
ORDER
OPTIONS
information will be presented.
9 a.m. Sept. 15: The Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee will consider the proposal.
9 a.m. Sept 16: The Finance and
Personnel Committee meets.
EVEN ON
SPECIAL
ORDERS!
Real Discounts
Up to $350*
Plus
Up to 48 Months
Special Financing**
Best Design-ItYour-Way Program!
ENDLESS OPTIONS!
Made in
North Carolina
Since 1963
Custom Design Your
Upholstered Furniture as
Easy as 1, 2, 3. Choose
from 504 Designs!
75” - 85” - 95” Sofas
Pick Your Arm, Leg, &
Back Style
20” - 22” - 24” Seat
Depths
HEAVY DUTY: 8-Way
Hand-Tied Coil Spring
Base
Over 900 Colors &
Fabrics
* Real Discounts not valid on Tempur-Pedic, icomfort, and iseries. Items marked “As Advertised,” “Final Price” or “Includes All Discounts” already include the
discount. ** Special Financing: Subject to credit approval on 6 months minimum purchases of $399 or more with minimum monthly payments required.
24 months minimum purchases of $999 or more or 48 months minimum purchases of $1999 with monthly payments required. Financing offers apply only to
single-receipt qualifying purchases. Prior purchases and clearance items are excluded. 50% deposit required on special orders. Sales tax and delivery charge
collected at time of purchase. Cannot be combined with any other offer, discount, coupon or balance. See store for details. Ends Monday, September 7, 2015.
6
| August 27, 2015
Dane Co. challenges spill-prone oil company
By Lisa Neff
Staff writer
Environmental activists huddled up after
the state’s Republican leadership ran a
sneak attack this summer and cleared the
way for a Canadian company to massively
expand the pumping of tar sands crude oil
through Wisconsin.
In the huddle, activists with the grassroots group 350 Madison came up with a
new strategy to address Enbridge Energy’s
drive to expand the pumping of tar sands
oil over environmentally sensitive waterways and agricultural lands.
On Aug. 10, 350 Madison filed a petition
with the Dane County Zoning and Land
Regulation Committee asking the board
to rescind a conditional-use permit for
Enbridge’s pipeline pumping station near
Medina. The petition also asks the board
to require that Enbridge establish a trust
fund to ensure money is available to clean
up any oil spills.
The proposal caught the attention of
some on the county committee who loudly
disapproved when Republican legislators dropped a provision into the 2015–17
state budget intended to give Enbridge a
full go-ahead for its Line 61 project. The
GOP’s state budget amendment nullified
Dane County’s requirement that Enbridge
carry cleanup insurance and gave Enbridge
authority to seize land through eminent
domain.
On Aug. 12, Dane County Supervisor
Mary Kolar, a member of the zoning committee, asked staff to put 350 Madison’s
request and any other options on a meeting agenda — and to do so quickly.
Line 61
Line 61 is a 42-inch diameter pipeline
built in 2009 and part of a network of
Enbridge pipelines across North America.
The line carries Alberta tar sands oil —
some of the dirtiest oil in the world — from
a terminal in Superior, Wisconsin, to a
terminal in Pontiac, Illinois, or through a
network of pipelines that delivers oil to the
Gulf Coast.
Enbridge wants to expand the capacity
of Line 61 threefold and move 1.2 million
barrels of crude per day — that’s more oil
than would course through the proposed
Keystone XL pipeline. To expand Line 61’s
capacity, the company needs to build new
pumping stations and modify existing
pumping stations.
Under Gov. Scott Walker’s administration and a GOP majority in both legislative
chambers, only Dane County and its activist community have challenged Enbridge.
Authorities in Dane County cannot by
federal law take action to prevent a spill,
but they were advised they could act to
ensure a cleanup.
In April, after about a year of discussion
and debate, the Dane County zoning com-
mittee attached a requirement to a conditional-use permit for a non-conforming
pumping station on farmland. The committee said Enbridge needed $25 million
in liability insurance to cover costs associated with cleaning up an oil spill.
Record of spills
Spills are not hypothetical with Enbridge,
which is responsible for more than 800
spills since 1999. In Wisconsin, pipeline
ruptures in 2007 spilled about 29,000
gallons of crude oil onto a farm in Clark
County and about 176,000 gallons of oil
onto a farm in Rusk County. In 2009, a
rupture spilled about 1,200 barrels of oil
on a farm in Grand Marsh.
The worst Enbridge spill was the 2010
spill in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.
About 843,000 gallons of tar sands oil
flowed into a creek and then the river,
making the Kalamazoo disaster the largest
inland oil spill in U.S. history.
The spill revealed the destructiveness
of tar sands oil. Tar sands ore, mined from
deforested land in Canada, must be mixed
with chemicals to move through a pipeline.
This makes the crude more acidic and
leads to more ruptures and spills, according to the Sierra Club.
In Michigan, when the tar sands crude
spilled and was exposed to air, toxic gases
forced the evacuation of more than 300
homes and a thick, heavy tar gunk sank to
the river bottom.
The cleanup on the Kalamazoo, which
environmentalists and the EPA say still
is incomplete, has cost more than $1.2
billion — an amount well over the cap on
Enbridge’s liability insurance.
Yet this summer, Wisconsin lawmakers,
in adopting an amended biennial budget, removed Dane County’s authority to
impose the insurance mandate. The proEnbridge rider was approved and reached
Walker with no legislator admitting to
authorizing the provision.
“That amendment barred counties from
imposing insurance requirements intended
to remediate oil leaks, apparently in the
belief that taxpayers, not the derelict company responsible, should have to pick up
the sometimes billion-dollar cleanup tabs,”
said 350 Madison activist Peter Anderson.
Anderson said it’s ironic 350 Madison’s
proposal — the trust fund requirement —
could prove more costly for the energy
company than the insurance mandate nullified by Enbridge’s unidentified allies in
the GOP.
“By spreading risk over a pool, the cost
of insurance would be nominal to Enbridge,
so long as its representations are true that
it operates safely,” Anderson said. “Trust
funds, the only viable remaining option,
unfortunately will cost Enbridge 20 times
more.”
NEWS Analysis
Taxpayer cost for Walker’s
breach of contract with
trainmaker rises to $50M
By Louis Weisberg
Staff writer
were not built to meet federal specifications, because they were paid for by the
state, according to MBJ.
“We are hopeful we will find a state that
is actually open to doing business and
actually honors their contracts,” Friend
told the publication.
Wisconsin taxpayers are on the hook for
a modernizing rail transportation project
Scott Walker nixed when he took office as
governor, breaking a contract that ex-Gov.
Jim Doyle’s administration entered into
with the Spanish trainmaker Talgo.
Under terms of a settlement made Politics over people
recently in a lawsuit that Talgo filed against
Walker’s critics say the rejection of fedthe state, Wisconsin will pay $9.7 million eral money and the subsequent loss of
to Talgo in addition to the $42 million it’s jobs and high-speed rail was the first in a
already paid the company. The total bill series of destructive economic decisions
taxpayers must pay for trains the state the governor made.
never received or used is $50 million.
Walker’s public argument at the time
Talgo had originally sued the state for was that the project would eventually cost
nearly $66 million.
the state millions in maintenance fees.
Doyle and the state’s then-Democratic
But advocates for the project claimed
Legislature agreed in 2009 to purchase it was potentially a vital economic develtwo new train sets from Talgo. They were opment engine that would create jobs
to be used for Amtrak’s
and spur new business growth
popular Hiawatha line Walker’s been
along the rail line, as it has in
between Milwaukee
other regions that have modand Chicago, as well criticized for taking ernized rail.
as for a high-speed rail
In light of the Talgo deal,
project between Mil- federal funds for
critics charged Walker with
waukee and Madison. road construction
hypocrisy when he sought to
In addition to agreeborrow more than $1.3 billion
ing to purchase the while turning
for new highway projects in the
trains, the state had
2015–17 biennial budget. At the
entered into a 20-year down dollars for
time, Walker argued that the
maintenance agree- other forms of
road construction would help
ment to service the
create jobs. That’s something
trains, a deal to pro- transportation.
Walker has said the governvide a maintenance
ment should not be in the busifacility and an option
ness of doing.
to purchase two additional train sets.
Walker also has been criticized for sayThe deal fell victim to politics, as the ing yes to the considerable federal funds
new governor sought to burnish his cre- that the state receives for road construcdentials as an “anti-big government” con- tion while turning down funds for other
servative. The rail project was tied to $810 forms of transportation. He enjoys major
million in federal stimulus money to help financial support from roadbuilders and
pay for it, but Walker rejected the federal donors whose wealth is tied to the fosfunding, depicting it as part of a scheme to sil fuel industry, leading to accusations
foster state dependency on Washington.
that his transportation decisions are being
Still, Talgo continued building the train made on their behalf rather than that of
sets that the state had agreed to pur- the state’s residents.
chase. In January 2012, Talgo notified the
Some of the highway projects Walker
state they were ready for delivery, but the supports were found to be unnecessary,
Wisconsin Department of Transportation according to an independent audit of trafrefused to accept them. In November 2012, fic flow patterns commissioned by 1000
Talgo canceled its purchase contract with Friends of Wisconsin.
the state.
A court decision earlier this year denied
According to the settlement, Talgo will federal funds for a project to widen Hightry to sell the two train sets it built for way 23 due to faulty traffic-flow projecWisconsin to another buyer. If successful, tions from WisDOT. In response, the
the train manufacturer will give 30 percent Republican-led Legislature included an
of the sale price to Wisconsin. item in the budget requiring WisDOT to
But Nora Friend, the company’s vice reevaluate and justify its methods of traffic
president of public affairs and business projections.
development, told Milwaukee Business
Walker vetoed that item, which watchJournal that it would be difficult to find a dog groups said could have saved Wisconbuyer. Part of the problem is that the trains sin taxpayers billions of dollars.
| August 27, 2015
7
8
| August 27, 2015
Cream City Foundation
Business equality
Luncheon September 24, 2015
11:15 AM – 1:30 PM | Potawatomi Hotel & Casino
Celebrating
and
promoting
LGBT
inclusive
workplaces
Keynote SpeaKer
Brian J. King Global Officer,
Marriott International
Wisconsin native and visibly
out executive, Brian will share
his insights on “The Marriott
Way: Diversity, Inclusion &
Hospitality.” King is a distinguished speaker and
panelist and has been a featured contributor
for USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall
Street Journal and Time Magazine.
TICKeTs sTarT aT $75
Tables and sponsorships also available.
Contact elupella@CreamCityFoundation.
org for more information.
regiSter today
2015BusinessLunch.Eventbrite.com
or call 414.225.0244
preSenting
SponSor
Start a Team.
We’re here to help.
Help End Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s disease – the nation’s sixth-leading cause of death – is destroying our families, our finances and our future.
But you can do something to stop it. Register for the Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s® and lead the way to
a world without Alzheimer’s. Henry Maier Festival Park | Sunday, September 20 | 8:30 a.m. Registration – 10:00 a.m. Walk
Milwaukee-area Professionals: The End of Alzheimer’s Starts With Your Company. Milwaukee’s annual Walk to End
Start a team at alz.org/walk. Register. Walk. All are welcome.
Alzheimer’s is the 15th largest in the country — and with your help, we can make it even bigger! Start by forming a company team,
and help us raise awareness and money to advance the fight against this deadly epidemic. The Milwaukee Walk to End Alzheimer’s
will be held at Henry Maier Festival Park, Sunday, Sept. 20. 8:30 a.m. registration, 10 a.m. walk. Form your team today!
alz.org/walk or 414.479.8800
9
| August 27, 2015
Wisconsin is a leader in creating
a culture in which food reflects values
P h o t o : A u d r e y Aw e l l
Farmers learn about growing cover crops on an organic vegetable farm at a MOSES Organic Field Day near Viroqua.
By Louis Weisberg
Staff writer
Twenty-one years ago, David Kozlowski
and his wife Sandra Raduenz were working in dependable corporate jobs with
retirement benefits. But the couple —
Raduenz in particular — longed for a
more meaningful life.
“She went to a conference where they
talked about community supported agriculture and she came back and said, ‘I
know what I want to be,’” Kozlowski said.
The two purchased a 21-acre farm in
Oak Creek, about 20 minutes from downtown Milwaukee. They continued to work
at their regular jobs for several years as
they gradually built Pinehold Gardens into
an organic food enterprise that brought in
enough so they could get by on income
from the land alone.
“It sounds kind of hokey but I really did
want to make the world a better place,
and this seemed like the way to do it …
even though we gave up a lot to do it,”
Kozlowski said.
At the time they began farming, the
swerve in their career paths was considered odd — more like a premise for a TV
sitcom than something responsible adults
actually do. But the two were on the cutting edge of a cultural phenomenon that
is beginning to change the relationship
between Americans and their food.
While organic farms — many of them
are small local farms — represent only
about 1 percent of all food sales, the
industry is growing so rapidly that Big
Ag, in collusion with corporatists such
as the Koch brothers, has launched a
propaganda war against them. Big Ag is
right to be worried: Organic food sales are
growing at double-digit rates, compared
with 4–5 percent growth for traditional
and industrial farms.
Pinehold Gardens has been successful for mostly a two-person operation.
Recently Kozlowski, 60, hired two parttimer workers. The farm also benefits
from its 180 member families — people
who join the farm each year either for a
fee or by providing labor. In return, they
receive a box of vegetables weekly for 18
to 24 weeks, depending on the length and
success of the growing season.
Such arrangements are known as community supported agriculture.
“We think there’s a lot of benefits to
both farmers and consumers vis-a-vis
CSAs,” said Anne Alonzo, who leads the
United States Department of Agriculture’s
Agricultural Marketing Service. “Farmers
can distribute their products during the
hours that work for them and they receive
payment for the products early in the
season, which helps the farms’ economic
planning. And this gives consumers access
to … a wide variety of fresh, local food.”
Food and values
“People sign up because they want to
get their food locally and find out who’s
growing it,” Kozlowski said. “They want
their food grown organically and they
want the sense of belonging to a community. It’s almost like being part of a
religious community.”
The Insurance Office
PERSONAL,
LOcAL
SERVicE!
AUTO • HOME • RENTERS - LOWEST RATES FOR EVERYONE!
We shop over 40 A-rated carriers. Call us today for a quote! (414)
302-0101
www.theinsuranceoffice.org
• 8831 W Greenfield Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53214
[email protected]
Kozlowski’s allusion to religious overtones is not an exaggeration. At a recent
meeting of the American Sociological
Association in Chicago, Ion Vasi, an associate professor at the University of Iowa’s
Department of Sociology, presented a
report that came to essentially the same
conclusion.
Vasi and his researchers found that
more Americans than ever are shopping
at farmers markets, and they’re also joining food co-ops in record numbers. These
shoppers want fresh food untainted with
GMOs, chemical fertilizers, herbicides
and pesticides.
They also want something much more
profound, Vasi found: to feel a part of
something greater than themselves, part
of a community that shares their passion
for a healthy lifestyle and a sustainable
environment.
“It’s about valuing the relationship with
the farmers and people who produce the
food and believing that how they produce
the food aligns with your personal values,”
Vasi said in a news statement.
Locavores — people who support the
local, largely organic food movement —
also believe they’re performing a civic
duty, an act to preserve their local economy against the threats of globalization and
big-box stores, Vasi said.
“It’s not just about the economical
FOOD next page
10
FOOD from prior page
exchange; it’s a relational and ideological
exchange as well,” he said.
The UI study concluded that the local
food market is what sociologists call a
“moralized market” — a market in which
people combine economic activities with
their social values.
Locavores bond with farmers at weekend open-air markets and, increasingly,
visits to local farms. “All the farms we
know open their gates to the community
either all the time or at certain times of the
year,” Kozlowski said.
Pinehold Gardens has a market stand
where people can buy produce on the
farm. Business at the stand has doubled in
| August 27, 2015
the past two years, Kozlowski said.
He and other farmers also serve dinners
on their farms. Local chiefs are invited to
prepare the meals, using only ingredients
raised on the farm or at farms nearby.
Kozlowski is doing two dinners this year,
each for 100 people. The first, a fundraiser
for Milwaukee Public Television, sold out in
one day — the second in three days.
“You have to wonder why people would
want to eat food outside when they could
go to a nice restaurant,” Kozlowski said,
“but it’s a very popular concept. They must
want a connection with the farm, otherwise it defies reason.”
Wisconsin at forefront
P h oto : M e l i ssa K l e i n
David Kozlowski on a tractor, munching a carrot as he works. Kozlowski gave up a mainstream career to become a part of the local organic food movement.
Like Kozlowski and Radeunz, the state of
Wisconsin was a so-called “early adopter”
of the local organic food movement. The
state has the largest organic dairy co-op
in the world, Organic Valley, as well as the
nation’s largest producer-only (no resale)
farmers market — Dane County Farmers
Market in Madison.
The state has the eighth largest number
of farmers markets in the nation, which
says something heartening about Wisconsin: Among their findings, UI researchers
discovered that local food markets are
more likely to develop in areas where residents have a strong commitment to civic
participation, health and the environment.
Nationwide, the number of farmers markets registered with the USDA grew from
about 3,700 in 2004 to 8,268 in 2014. In
Wisconsin, the number of markets grew
from 170 to 295 during that time.
Wisconsin also hosts North America’s
largest organic farming conference in La
Crosse every year. The Midwest Organic
and Sustainable Education Service, better
known as MOSES, puts on the conference.
When Kozlowski first attended, it was only
a few years old and attracted about 200
people, most of whom he described as
“back-to-lander hippies.” This year, more
than 3,500 people attended, representing all generations, races, ethnicities, religions, cultures, sexual orientations and
gender identities, said MOSES communication director Audrey Alwell.
“The movement has support from such a
broad base because people are fed up with
what they’re being fed,” Alwell said.
Kozlowski said it’s uplifting to see so
many young people at recent conferences.
He wants the movement he’s been part of
developing to take root here and all over
the world.
“It’s a mind-blower to go to the conference that used to be full of old hippie wannabes and see all the young folks using
their smartphones and texting each other
— even when they’re sitting at the same
table,” he said. “I’m tickled pink.”
Alwell said it made her day when she
read a Facebook post by a young farmer
who won a scholarship to attend the conference: “I’m going to the mother ship,” he
bragged.
Like Kozlowski, she wants more and
more farmers to continue adopting the
high standards required for USDA certification as an organic farm. Those include
waiting for three years before planting
to get toxins out of the soil — an expensive proposition. The government provides
assistance to organic farmers, but the first
phase inevitably involves financial sacrifice.
Farming without pesticides, herbicides
and chemical fertilizers, which are made
partly from fossil fuels, also is more costly. So is buying seeds that don’t contain
GMOs and leaving natural buffers around
the farms to support local wildlife while
preventing contamination from nearby
farms.
Although expensive to achieve, the
environmental sustainability of organically
grown foods is the primary draw for young
people. Organic farmers feel so strongly
about the rightness of their industry that
there’s an emerging trend of farmers putting aside a portion of their earnings for
research and promotion, Alwell said.
Small farmers in the state are assisted in
marketing their products by the Wisconsin
FOOD next page
Great product and
personable service.
America’s Best Warranty
10-Year/100,000-Mile
Powertrain Limited Warranty
2015 Hyundai Sonata.........
Why Wouldn't you want This?
There are no other cars on the market that can say all this:
Consumer Reports Recommended Pick
Edmunds.com Top Rated Sedan
U.S. News Best Midsize Car For The Money
IIHS Top Safety Pick
Cars.com #1 Midsize Sedan
USA Today #1 Midsize Sedan
Motorweek #1 Midsize Sedan
Largest Interior Room
Americana's Best Warranty
Finalist North American Car of The Year
2015 Hyundai Sonata.........Why Wouldn't you want This?
Ask For Gary Prestidge
Sales Consultant
Direct: 414-292-1821
Cell: 414-840-6176
[email protected]
www.tricityhyundai.com
6133 S, 27th Street
Greenfield, WI 53221
FOOD from prior page
Food Hub Cooperative, which is working to
establish a unique brand identity for the
state’s organic industry.
Co-ops
The market for organic food now outstrips demand, according to several industry sources. Despite that and despite the
greater expense of farming organically,
consumer prices actually are coming down,
due to growing competition and everimproving farming techniques.
“About two or three years ago there
was a bubble, where the prices started
to change,” said Shelly McClone, inventory coordinator for Milwaukee’s Riverwest
Co-op Grocery and Café. Better pricing and
all the buzz about the health benefits of
eating organic have compelled mainstream
supermarkets to add organic aisles that
are growing in popularity with conventional
shoppers.
Even though supermarkets are trying to
cash in on the trend, co-ops remain a primary avenue connecting consumers with
local food producers. Because co-ops are
nearly synonymous with the organic food
scene, customers get a sense of connection with the movement by shopping at
them. For some people with back-to-theland longings, co-ops and farmers markets
are the closest they can get to interacting
with the land, Kozlowski said.
McClone purchases from many urban
farms and tries to remain within a 100-mile
radius in sourcing products. When she
does have to go outside the area to buy
items such as avocados and bananas, she
only does business with organic farmers.
Whenever possible, she also purchases
food from nonprofits such as Milwaukee’s
Walnut Way.
The University of Wisconsin-Extension
in Waukesha offers a master gardener
program that is helping to turn out new
local farmers all the time, McClone added.
Pushback
Despite its 99-percent market advantage over organic farmers, Big Ag is showing signs of feeling threatened.
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting published an article last summer documenting a growing anti-organic food narrative
that’s appearing in the media. But the
| August 27, 2015
article also reported its discovery that
“the anti-organic narrative did not arise
organically.” The authors connected the
dots between the naysayers quoted in the
articles and front groups for Big Ag as well
as researchers who’ve received funding
directly from industrial farm and chemical
interests.
The writers of the articles either ignored
or didn’t know about meta studies and
peer-reviewed research that conclusively
contradict their criticisms.
The anti-organic writers also go out
of their way to ridicule the local organic
food movement. An article in the New York
Post quoted a source who talked about
the growing phenomenon of the “organic
mommy mafia” — crazy mothers who buy
organic food for their children and shame
moms who don’t. The source was the
11
director of the Culture of Alarmism Project at the Independent Women’s Forum. It
turned out that’s a right-wing foundation
funded by corporatists such as the Koch
brothers, who own Koch Ag & Energy Solutions. Biotechnology and chemical companies have a lot to lose from the ascension
of organic foods.
Although the anti-organic spin machine
is likely to ramp up, it doesn’t appear to be
affecting people in Wisconsin. Kozlowski
said he’s seeing new faces at his farm
stand that are unlike the ones he saw in
the past.
“They’re not the urban, progressive,
Birkenstock-wearing people,” he said.
“They’re the people who usually shop at
the big grocery stores. They’re coming out
here, and they’re coming out again. That’s
a good sign.”
P h oto : Co u rt e sy P i n e h o l d G a r d e n s
Mingling before an on-farm dinner.
12
| August 27, 2015
regional news
Waukesha’s quest to
divert Lake Michigan
water under review
P H O T O : C o u r t e s y M L B . com
BOLD BREWER: Helena Brewers baseball player David Denson came out as
gay in mid-August and made pro sports
history. “Talking with my teammates,
they gave me the confidence I needed,
coming out to them,” Denson said in
an interview with the Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel, which broke the story. “They
said, ‘You’re still our teammate. You’re
still our brother. We kind of had an idea,
but your sexuality has nothing to do with
your ability. You’re still a ballplayer at
the end of the day. We don’t treat you
any different. We’ve got your back.’” The
Helena team is a minor league affiliate of
the Milwaukee Brewers.
A proposal from the city of Waukesha
to divert water from Lake Michigan drew
proponents and opponents to a series of
public hearings held in Waukesha, Milwaukee and Racine in mid-August.
Waukesha says diverting water from the
lake is the only alternative to the radiumlaced water in its aquifer system. The
federal government has ordered the city
to provide safe drinking water to residents
by 2018.
Environmental groups opposed to the
proposal, which has preliminary approval
from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, say technological tools exist
to improve Waukesha’s water.
Wisconsin vets call
on Johnson to return
campaign money
Wisconsin veterans earlier in August
called on U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to return
a $5,400 campaign donation from a California corporate executive said to have
manipulated national and international
law to charge military servicemembers
exorbitant rates for phone calls to family
members.
Gregorio Galicot, president of BBG Communications, Inc., racked up profits by
“fleecing” U.S. troops and charging up
to $400 for phone calls from overseas,
according to the veterans in a letter to the
Republican senator.
Galicot’s practices drew national headlines in 2012 and were widely condemned
after a class-action lawsuit was brought.
Group wants criminal
charges at MINN. hog farm
An animal welfare group called on prosecutors to file criminal charges against
workers and managers at a Minnesota hog
farm, saying its undercover investigation
documented 36 specific violations of the
state’s animal cruelty laws — backed up by
graphic video evidence.
Los Angeles-based Last Chance for Animals made the call as it released a fiveminute video from footage shot over four
months this spring at a Christensen Farms
breeding facility in the southwestern Minnesota city of Luverne. Christensen Farms
is one of the country’s largest pork producers.
regional NLRB director in Chicago who
said the football players are effectively
school employees and entitled to organize.
• GYROS OF EQUALITY: U.S. Sen. Tammy
Baldwin visited Gracie’s Gyros and Wraps
in La Crosse to show her support for the
restaurant’s stance on gay marriage.
Owner Despina Kozidis came under
fire from a customer when she posted
a picture on her Facebook page with a
rainbow filter. A customer who saw the
picture messaged her that he would
no longer eat at her restaurant. Kozidis
replied, “That’s great! We prefer to have
accepting … co-existing consumers.”
After seeing the post, local gay resident
Michael Shaw organized the Spread Love
and Good Food event, which brought
hundreds of patrons to the eatery.
— from WiG and AP reports
WALKER WATCH
Researcher trying to
re-establish mayflies
in Green Bay
Walker’s chief steps down
In other regional news …
Walker flip-flops for 3rd time
A Milwaukee-based researcher is trying to re-establish mayflies in the bay
of Green Bay, where the insect was historically plentiful but has dwindled due
to industrial pollution. Efforts to clean the
bay and river have caused water quality to
improve greatly, despite an ongoing dead
zone caused by phosphorus runoff. The
flies have played a crucial role in the health
of the bay and have served as a major
protein source for walleye and other fish.
Restoring the insects could cause the bay
to once again become a world-class fishery
and boost the local economy.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s Republican
leadership is suing the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and the Army Corps
of Engineers to block a proposed federal
rule to prevent the degradation of water
quality.
• CIVIL RIGHTS CASE: The family of a
biracial man who was shot and killed by
a Madison police officer filed a federal
civil rights lawsuit, alleging the officer’s
actions were unconstitutional. The lawsuit contends that Officer Matt Kenny’s
decision to shoot 19-year-old Tony Robinson Jr. in March violated Robinson’s equal
protection rights and right to be free of
unreasonable searches and seizures. It
also argues that the city enables such
misconduct by failing to adequately train,
supervise and control its officers.
• FROM FIELD TO COURT: The National
Labor Relations Board in mid-August
threw out the historic ruling that gave
Northwestern University football players the go-ahead to form the nation’s
first college athletes’ union. The decision
dismissed a March 2014 decision by a
Gov. Scott Walker’s longtime chief of
staff Eric Schutt is stepping down.
Schutt is leaving “to pursue other
opportunities and to spend more time
with family,” Walker’s office said in a
statement. It did not say what those
opportunities are.
The move comes at a time when
Walker’s presidential campaign is suffering from plummeting poll numbers,
a weak performance in the first GOP
presidential debate and growing national awareness of his scandals and economic failures as governor. A recent
Marquette University Law School poll
found Walker losing to Hillary Clinton
among Wisconsin voters in a theoretical matchup. The poll also showed
Walker’s favorability rating among Wisconsin voters in the falling below 40
percent for the first time.
Scott Walker has changed his position on birthright citizenship three
times since Donald Trump raised it as
a campaign issue. “Birthright citizenship” refers to automatic citizenship for
children who are born on U.S. soil, as
guaranteed under the Constitution.
Walker told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos he would not seek to overturn
the 14th amendment’s guarantee of
birthright citizenship, as Trump would.
But during a an interview on CNBC two
days prior, Walker insisted he had no
position on the issue.
That statement came after Walker
gave mixed answers on the issue a week
earlier, including a statement that the
U.S. should “absolutely” end birthright
citizenship.
— from AP and WiG reports
Community BRIEFS
Wisconsin LGBT Chamber
named ‘Chamber of the Year’
The Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce was named 2015 Chamber of the
Year on Aug. 13 at the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce 2015 International Business & Leadership Conference
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Last year, the
chamber received the Rising Star Chamber
Award.
NGLCC recognized the chamber as a
role model.
Along with the award came a $5,000
grant funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation to expand capacity and offer technical
assistance to the chamber’s Lunch & Learn
Series, which fosters the development,
growth and sustainability of certified LGBT
business enterprises.
“Our organization began in 2011 as a
young LGBT professionals-networking
organization and we soon discovered the
tremendous need for LGBT business owners to connect and support an inclusive
business climate in Wisconsin,” said executive director Jason Rae. “We’ve exceeded
our own expectations in less than three
years and we couldn’t have done so without the passionate work of our members
and corporate partners. This recognition
is an extreme honor for our organization.”
In other community news ...
• TO THE POINT: Walker’s Point Center
for the Arts’ new executive director is
Ana Melo. She grew up in the Walker’s
Point neighborhood and has strong ties
to the community. She is a bilingual community leader passionate about the arts,
youth engagement and nonprofit sustainability, according to a news release.
“I’m honored to serve such a prestigious
organization and a community near and
dear to my heart,” she said. “My vision
is to continue to build upon the strong
presence of the organization and to create new partnerships that align with our
mission in bringing arts to youth, families and artists in the neighborhood of
Walker’s Point and throughout the city of
Milwaukee.”
• PADDLERS TO PROTEST OIL TRAINS:
Milwaukee Riverkeeper and Citizens for
Railroad Safety-Milwaukee Area will host
“Convergence at the Confluence” at 3
p.m. on Sept. 13. Organizers said paddlers
— in kayaks or canoes or on paddleboards — will meet at the confluence of
the Milwaukee and Menomonee rivers
by the railroad bridge in Walker’s Point
to “show concern about crude oil trains.
… Oil and water don’t mix.” For more,
search for “convergence at the confluence” on Facebook.
• ARTS AWARDS: Arts Wisconsin is
reviewing nominations for the seventh
annual Arts in the Community awards.
The honors are presented by Arts Wisconsin in partnership with the League of
Wisconsin Municipalities to recognize
communities and civic leaders that
champion the arts as integral to economic, educational and community vitality. Award winners will be selected by a
panel and recognized in October.
• VISITING DOCTOR: Cuban physician
and gay activist Dr. Alberto Roque Guerra
appears at 7 p.m. on Sept. 2, at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center, 1110 N.
Market St., to talk about his success in
developing a medical program of comprehensive treatment for transgender people
in the island nation.
— WiG
Send announcements for WiG’s community bulletin board to [email protected].
| August 27, 2015
13
An exceptional opportunity for a
proven media sales professional
The Wisconsin Gazette is seeking a successful account executive to
cultivate and maintain clients for a progressive, award-winning
alternative biweekly publication with distribution sites throughout
southeastern Wisconsin and Madison. Candidates should be experienced
in all stages of developing and maintaining effective advertising programs
that include print, digital and social marketing components.
Duties include:
• Researching clients and markets
• Cold-calling targeted prospects
• Making effective presentations to individuals and groups
• Collaborating with copywriters and designers on creative development
• Developing multi-platform marketing programs to enhance
branding effectiveness
Skills include:
• Proven ability to attract new clients and close sales
• Proven track record in media marketing and sales
• Outgoing and enthusiastic
• Team player
Benefits:
• Base salary and generous
commission structure
• Paid holidays and vacation
• Health insurance
To apply, send letter and
resume to Mark Richards at
[email protected].
No phone calls, please.
Know your status.
Get tested!
Free HIV and STD testing at 6pm on Monday
and Tuesday nights. No appointment needed.
BESTD
C·L·I·N·I·C
1240 E. Brady Street
www.bestd.org
@BESTDClinic
Join Milwaukee’s most awarded alternative publication and
benefit from our rapid growth. Wisconsin Gazette is a highly
respected member of Wisconsin’s journalism community — a
member of The Associated Press cooperative, the Milwaukee Press
Club and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. We believe in
and adhere to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics.
14
Please recirculate & recycle this publication.
P r o g r e s s i v e . A lt e r n at i v e .
The Wisconsin Gazette is published every
other week and distributed throughout the
Milwaukee area, Madison, Racine, Kenosha,
and 40 other cities statewide. To have
WiG delivered to your address, contact
[email protected] or call 414961-3240, ext. 101.
WiG Publishing, LLC. © 2015
3956 N. Murray Ave. Shorewood, WI 53211
CEO/Principal
Leonard Sobczak
[email protected]
publisher/Editor in Chief
Louis Weisberg
[email protected]
Senior Editor
Lisa Neff, [email protected]
ARTS EDITOR
Matthew Reddin
[email protected]
Business development
Manager
Mark Richards
[email protected]
Business manager/
Production coordinator
Kaity Weisensel
[email protected]
Graphic Designers
Eric Van Egeren, Maureen M. Kane
COPY EDITOR
Stephen DeLeers
E ditorial
Standing in solidarity with Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin recently selected the
Wisconsin Gazette as recipient of the group’s Voices award.
No honor we’ve received makes us prouder than this one,
particularly now.
Despite the unrelenting campaigns of propaganda, PPWI’s
22 clinics provide quality, affordable reproductive health
care, including honest sex education, birth control, adoption
referrals, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and STD
testing and treatment to 60,000 women and men. That’s
even after being forced to shutter five clinics because Gov.
Scott Walker cut off state funding for the organization.
But anti-choice activists have demonized Planned Parenthood in recent years, whipping up the level of hysteria that
accompanied Joe McCarthy’s red scare of the 1950s. And
conservative politicians are capitalizing on it, just as they did
on McCarthyism.
Although abortion represents only about 3 percent of
PP’s services, that’s enough for anti-choice fanatics to put a
bullseye on its doors.
Foes have whittled away at women’s reproductive freedom
for decades, but abortion is still legal and its legality is supported by a majority of U.S. citizens. It’s also a deeply personal choice that can only be made by a woman whose body
and future are involved. Women are not human incubators.
We fully respect the countless women who choose to
carry a pregnancy to term under adverse circumstances,
including conception through rape or incest. But it’s their
right to make that choice, not the right of a bureaucrat.
Individual liberty and the pursuit of happiness cannot exist if
strangers can force a woman to bear a child against her will.
The current frenzy against abortion is the result of years of
brilliant propaganda by anti-choice leaders. Their heart-tugging campaigns of deception featuring fully formed thimblesized fetuses and bloody, disembodied parts of infants are
complete fabrications. Recently it was revealed that activists
were using the picture of a stillborn baby in their propaganda
and claiming it was an aborted fetus.
A recent “sting” operation added fuel to PP’s critics. Selectively edited tapes that were secretly recorded by activists
SALES information
[email protected] or call 414.961.3240
Account executives
Kim Jackson, [email protected]
Logan McDermott,
[email protected]
Laurie Verrier, [email protected]
Larry Zamba, [email protected]
Circulation
[email protected]
Distribution
Paul Anderson, Andy Augustyn, Thomas Now,
Heather Shefbuch, Robert Wright
CONTRIBUTORS
Colton Dunham, Jamakaya, Bill Lamb,
Kat Minerath, Mike Muckian, Jay Rath,
Kirstin Roble, Anne Siegel, Gregg Shapiro,
Virginia Small, Julie Steinbach, Larry Zamba
| August 27, 2015
WiG’s
WEB
PICKS
Some of
our favorite
recent
pictorials
from
cyberspace
made it appear as if PP was doing a booming business in
selling fetal tissue to medical researchers. But investigations
launched by conservatives in several states have yielded no
evidence of wrongdoing.
Fetal tissue, which can be donated by women to science just as people can donate their organs, has yielded
medical advances that have saved lives — including those,
undoubtedly, of anti-choice activists. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., under Walker’s direction, made a
$750,000 loan and gave $2 million in tax credits to Flu-Gen,
a Madison biotech firm that’s using kidney cells derived from
fetal tissue to create a more effective flu vaccine. Biotech
companies like Flu-Gen not only save lives, but also contribute significantly contributors to the state’s economy.
But now, capitalizing on the fury over PP, state Republican
leaders want to criminalize the sale of fetal tissue.
Activists have turned the debate about abortion from a
women’s issue into one over the “personhood” of fertilized
eggs and fetuses. That’s not a scientific view, but rather a
religious belief that has no place in the secular world.
When a 10-year-old girl in Paraguay got pregnant after
being raped by her stepfather, the government there ruled
for the rights of her fetus over hers, forcing her to carry the
baby to term at great risk to her health. The baby was delivered through C-section, because a natural delivery would
have killed her. Mike Huckabee praised the decision. He and
most of the other Republican candidates, including Walker,
want to criminalize abortions under any circumstances,
including those in which the mother’s life is in danger.
Bizarrely, Walker denies that such situations exist.
More than ever, we need organizations that cherish women’s lives over embryonic cells. PP is at the forefront of such
organizations. Its doctors and staffers work under constant
harassment, including death threats that have led to at least
nine murders in recent years. They refuse to yield to fanatics
who believe that women’s bodies are public property.
We are proud to stand with them and the essential health
services they provide. Unlike Walker, they are truly unintimidated.
ON THE RECORD
“I am not intimidated by you, sir,
or anyone else out there.”
— SCOTT WALKER responding
to dozens of protesters who interrupted his speech at the Iowa State Fair
with boos and chants of “liar.”
“It is simply not fair, or honorable, to ask black
Mississippians to attend schools, compete in athletic events, work in the public sector, serve in the
National Guard, and go about their normal lives with
a state flag that glorifies a war fought to keep their
ancestors enslaved.”
— JIMMY BUFFETT, JOHN GRISHAM, MORGAN
FREEMAN, ARCHIE MANNING and other famous
current and former Mississippi residents in a letter
titled “A Flag for All of Us.” The letter asked the
state to remove the Confederate battle emblem from
its flag.
“We’re going to keep coming back. We’re going to
fight this to the very end.”
— KAREN ROBERTS, who along with her female
partner of 11 years was denied a marriage license by
a county clerk in Kentucky. The clerk, who cited her
religious beliefs as justification, has been married
four times.
“Every night I light a candle that he stays in the
race until Sept. 8. But I also hope that nobody gets
that candle too close to his hair.”
— STEPHEN COLBERT expressing hope that Donald Trump is still in the presidential race when he
begins hosting the Late Show.
“At first I couldn’t even say, ‘I’m gay’ in my head,
let alone out loud.”
— KEEGAN HIRST, captain of the U.K.’s Batley
Bulldogs rugby team, coming out in an interview
with the Daily Mirror. Hirst is the first working professional rugby player to come out.
“This is definitely not what the Guesthouse Inn
represents. The group will not be at our hotel, nor
will they ever be at our hotel.”
— MICHELLE JAMESON, director of the Guesthouse Inn in Nashville, Tennessee, telling the Tennessean that she had canceled reservations made by the
Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist group that had planned to hold a conference at
the hotel. Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof
cited the group as his inspiration.
“If he’s smart, he will get back to basics and get
back to what he did in Wisconsin (and) get off the
social issues. No one is asking him to change the
morals of America.”
— STANLEY S. HUBBARD, a billionaire Minnesota
broadcasting tycoon who’s donated to Scott Walker’s campaign, expressing disappointment over the
governor’s promotion of a far-right social agenda.
“It wasn’t just about unions. It wasn’t about collective bargaining. It wasn’t just about pensions and
health care contributions. Those were all part of it. It
was really about education reform.”
— SCOTT WALKER spinning Act 10 at the New
Hampshire Education Summit, where
six Republican presidential contenders
answered questions about K-12 public
education.
15
| August 27, 2015
Steps to LGBT progress in Milwaukee
Opinion
30 YEARS AGO
JAMAKAYA
40 YEARS AGO
In 1975, the Gay People’s
Union established a gay and
lesbian community center in a
flat on Milwaukee’s East Side.
Called The Farwell Center, it
played host to community
meetings and housed the GPU
VD Examination Center, which
later became the Brady East
STD (BESTD) Clinic. The Farwell Center location is currently occupied by Bronze Optical,
a gay-owned business.
Milwaukee’s lesbian community was turning on to
women’s music and culture in
1975. The publication Amazon
lists concerts by national artists such as Margie Adam,
Cris Williamson, Casse Culver
and the Berkeley Women’s
Music Collective. Women
organized carpools to the
National Women’s Music
Festival. Natural Woman, a
monthly event at the Women’s Coalition, showcased
local women poets, singers
and visual artists.
In 1985, the Milwaukee
AIDS Project began its first
full year of providing services to people with HIV/
AIDS. The project evolved
into the AIDS Resource
Center of Wisconsin,
which coordinated a more
comprehensive response
to AIDS.
The Gay and Lesbian
Community at UW-Milwaukee held a Gay Awareness Week in March 1985
that included appearances by Vito Russo, author
of The Celluloid Closet;
the lesbian comic Robin
Tyler; and the singing duo
Romanovsky and Phillips.
In April, the Cream City
Business Association gave
its “Torch Bearer” Award
to Gov. Tony Earl for his
contributions to the community’s well being.
Gov. Earl’s Council on
Lesbian and Gay Issues
documented anti-gay bias
and worked to secure compliance with the state law
banning discrimination
based on sexual orientation.
20 YEARS AGO
In 1995, PrideFest successfully negotiated a
lease with World Festivals,
Inc., for use of Henry Maier
Festival Park as the site of
its 1996 festival. In June,
PrideFest drew 32,822 to
its 20th anniversary.
The Milwaukee LGBT
community made other
steps toward recognition
in 1995. City Hall hosted
the opening reception of
The Advocate magazine’s
Long Road to Freedom
exhibit on gay and lesbian
history. The Milwaukee
County Commission on
Aging launched its first
study of the needs of gay
and lesbian seniors.
LGBT 12-Step groups
marked a decade of existence at a conference
called “Commitment ’95,”
and Milwaukee groups
were featured on an episode of the PBS series In
the Life. The show included a funny bit with the
Lesbian Alliance softball
team singing the theme to
Laverne and Shirley.
10 YEARS AGO
In August 2005, the
MPD’s vice division shut
down a touring production of Naked Boys Singing!
at the Gay Arts Center.
The cops swooped in after
a complaint about the
show’s “immoral” content.
Police questioned whether
the center was a licensed
theater.
Given the MPD’s long
history of harassing gays,
activists saw the police
action as censorship and
selective law enforcement.
The ACLU of Wisconsin
won a $20,000 settlement
for the Arts Center from
the city in 2010. It was
determined that the Arts
Center, as a non-profit,
was not required to have a
theater license.
Ironically, the MPD had
initiated a new slate of
diversity training for officers and command staff
in 2005. The training was
overseen by an openly
gay captain named Mary
Hoerig. A 24-year veteran
of the MPD, Hoerig now
holds the rank of inspector.
Military’s massive use of fossil fuels must end
Opinion
Lenore M. Hitchler
The military produces
massive volumes of greenhouse gases. In fact, the
Pentagon is the largest single consumer of oil on the
planet.
According to the 2008
CIA World Fact Book, only
35 countries consume more
oil per day than the Pentagon. Bloomberg Business
reports that the Pentagon
spent $17 billion on petroleum in fiscal 2011.
Examples of fuel usage
and carbon emission statistics of various vehicles and
aircraft illuminate exactly
how the military consumes
so much petroleum. The
U.S. Air Force uses a quarter of the world’s jet fuel.
According to Global Fire
Power, in 2014 the United
States military had a total
of 8,848 tanks that get 0.2
miles per gallon and use
252 gallons of fuel each
hour. The Army has at
least 1,800 of them, and
the tanks require a fleet of
2,000 support trucks.
Cougar Armored Fighting Vehicles get around 9
miles per gallon. The Buffalo Mine Protected Vehicles
get around 3.5 miles per
gallon.
According to Business
Insider, the U.S. military has
approximately 13,000 aircraft. Apache helicopters
get 0.5 miles per gallon.
F4 Phantom fighter jets
use over 1,500 gallons per
hour. The Air Force’s M15
uses 25 gallons per minute. B-52 Stratocruisers use
3,334 gallons per hour, and
produce 200,000 pounds
per hour of CO2 equivalent.
They require in-air refueling by KC-10 Extender Aircraft, which consume 2,050
gallons per hour and emit
120,000 pounds of CO2
equivalent each hour. The
USS Independence Aircraft
Carrier uses 5,600 gallons
per hour and emits 112,000
tons of CO2 per hour.
These examples represent only a sample of
all the vehicles and aircraft used by the military.
At the height of the Iraq
war, the U.S. military used
a million gallons of fuel
each day. Oil Change International reported that the
Iraq war produced at least
141 million metric tons of
carbon dioxide. If the war
was ranked as a country
in terms of carbon emissions, it would have emitted more CO2 each year
than the annual emissions
of 139 nations.
To be sure, many people
feel that the security of the
United States depends on a
strong military, and therefore use of huge amounts
of fossil fuel is justified.
However, all of the vast
military hardware available
does not seem effective in
fighting 21st-century wars.
Modern warfare involves
surprise attacks by guer-
rilla-type enemy forces,
which is different from
more traditional warfare.
In other words, all of
the vastly superior U.S.
military force does not
deter enemy combatants.
Some enlightened members of the military see the
need for alternate methods of providing energy.
However, we do not have
time to wait for a gradual
change from the Pentagon.
The ethical response is to
mandate that the military
quickly curtail its use of
fossil fuels to help prevent
catastrophic climate disruption.
Instead of exacerbating
the problem, the Pentagon must face up to the
fact that climate change is
one of the gravest security
issues facing the world.
Lenore M. Hitchler, of Stevens Point, is a member of
Citizens Climate Lobby and
350.org.
16
| August 27, 2015
Mark Pocan: ‘a diamond in the congressional rough’
Profile
Louis Weisberg
In November 2012, Tammy Baldwin
made international headlines when she
became the first out lesbian ever elected
to the U.S. Senate. She was also the first
woman ever elected to that chamber from
Wisconsin.
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, made
history that year, too. A longtime friend of
Baldwin, he won her former congressional
district, becoming the first out candidate
to succeed another out officeholder in
Congress. Pocan also became the first
member of Congress to gain an official
spousal ID for a same-sex spouse — his
husband Phil Frank. The two married in
Toronto in 2006.
It took persistence and pulling some
strings for Pocan to get House Speaker
John Boehner to bestow the recognition.
Pocan’s success in obtaining it demonstrates two fundamentals about his brand
of leadership: He never backs down when
it comes to his beliefs, and he works strategically, rather than showily, to promote
them.
Congress’ spousal recognition of Pocan
and Frank has greater implications than
might be immediately apparent, said David
Stacy, the Human Rights Campaign’s government affairs director.
“I went over there (to the Capitol) the
day Mark was sworn in, and it was great
to see Phil was right there by his side and
his colleagues were looking on,” Stacy
said. “Mark having Phil by his side, and
it being just like other spouses, makes
members who are anti-LGBT have to deal
with same-sex spouses on an equal basis.
Ultimately that changes attitudes, because
it’s something they’re dealing with in their
everyday lives.”
HRC is working with members of Congress to pass the Equality Act, which would
update civil rights laws, including the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The law would
give LGBT people a tool to legally combat
discrimination in employment, housing,
public accommodations and other areas.
Stacy said Pocan, co-chair of Congress’
LGBT Equality Caucus, and the five other
out members of the House — along with
Baldwin in the Senate — will be the most
effective lobbyists on the bill’s behalf. They
can speak directly to their colleagues on
the measure’s significance to their lives.
Pocan is especially effective at the oneon-one level, according to Stacy.
“Mark is one of the best people I can
think of to have those conversations,” he
explained. “He’s friendly, accessible, nonthreatening. He’ll help (other representa-
The Mount Mary University
Alumnae Association presents:
Sunday, September 13, 2015 | 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Mount Mary University Campus | 2900 N. Menomonee River Parkway | Milwaukee
200+ Artists Presenting Pieces for $100 or Less
Artist: Nick Bowers
$10 Entry Fee with FREE Parking | Children under 12 FREE
Thank You for Supporting Student Scholarships!
TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE:
https://mmusas.eventbrite.com
mtmary.edu/SAS
Not valid for entry
tives) work through any issues they have.”
Pocan, who recently celebrated his 51st
birthday, applies an LGBT perspective to
a variety of issues. For instance, he circulated a letter seeking to remove Brunei
from a free-trade agreement due to that
country’s death penalty for LGBT people.
One hundred and nineteen members of
Congress signed the letter.
Progressive Caucus
Equality is but one item on a long list of
progressive causes that Pocan has pushed
forward with determination throughout his
political career, which includes 14 years in
the Wisconsin Assembly. He’s stood up
forcefully for including raising the minimum wage, offering debt-free college, putting an end to fracking, building a trust
fund for infrastructure projects and raising
taxes on people earning over $1 million
per year.
His strong work ethic, political skills and
experience grabbed the attention of Democratic leadership from his first days in
Washington. As a congressional freshman,
Pocan was named a member of the powerful House Committee on Education and the
Workforce — a plum assignment usually
reserved for more senior representatives.
Just one year into his second term, he was
named first vice chair of the Progressive
Caucus, the Democratic Party’s largest
values-based congressional caucus. He’s
also a senior whip and has frequent meetings with cabinet secretaries.
During a visit to Milwaukee earlier this
year, Pocan told WiG that despite rightwing control over Congress, the caucus’
power and influence are growing.
“This year the progressive caucus’ budget got more votes than ever,” he said. And
some key items in the progressive budget
have been adopted by the administration’s
proposed budget.
The Progressive Caucus call for debtfree college is now being promoted by the
campaigns of both Bernie Sanders and
Hillary Clinton.
“We can put ideas out there that an
become reality later,” Pocan said. “You just
have to have the patience and the perseverance.”
Thanks to the fundraising strength of
fellow caucus members such as his friend
Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, and Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois, Pocan expects the caucus to raise two to three times what it did
last session.
The caucus “works side by side with
labor, environmental, union and other
groups,” Pocan said. When measures
are blocked in Congress by Republican
leadership, the caucus works through the
executive branch. Pocan said the caucus
was involved in President Barack Obama’s
executive order on immigration, as well as
the one that raised the minimum wage for
federal contractors.
“That’s 22 to 24 percent of the economy,” Pocan said, grinning. “In a vacuum,
we have to have some way of doing something. We’re being strategic and realizing
that there’s not a single way to get things
done.”
Pocan noted that, despite the political
right’s screams of presidential overreach
and tyranny, as of the end of Congress’ last
session, Obama had issued fewer executive orders than any president in the past
100 years.
Their successes aside, Democrats and
progressives performed disastrously in
last year’s elections. Pocan blames the
losses on Democrats running away from
the president and the party’s failed messaging about the economy. Those two factors helped push the nationwide turnout
down to 36 percent. Low turnouts always
favor Republicans.
Pocan said the election proved once
again that “Republicans can succinctly put
their message. We need to be able to packPOCAN next page
17
| August 27, 2015
POCAN from prior page
age our ideas better. There’s awareness
around that coming out of the last election
cycle.”
Bipartisanship
For 12 of the 14 years Pocan was in the
Wisconsin Assembly, he served in the
minority. For half of those years, he served
on the Joint Finance Committee, which
writes the state’s budget. He served one
term as committee co-chair, one of the
state’s most powerful positions.
As he explained to Frederica Freyberg
in a July 18, 2013 interview on Wisconsin
Public Television, the finance committee
taught him the fine art of working across
party lines.
“When I first got elected, I’d throw a
grenade,” he said. “People would say what
did you hit? I’d say, I don’t know, it blew
up. And then from being on the finance
committee, especially when we had a committee that was an 8-8 committee, you
learn to work with other people to get
something thing done.
“You have to. I think one of the things
around here is, you’ve seen Washington,
there was a poll last December, people
would rather have a cockroach at their dinner table than a member of congress. That
should be a wake-up call.”
Pocan appeared on the program with
Republican Rep. Reid Ribble. The two have
become something of a political odd couple, working together publicly to engender
partisan cooperation on issues. They’ve
promoted legislation to increase funding
for medical research, for example, and
to change the federal budgeting process
from annual to biennial, as it’s done in
Wisconsin.
How does Pocan, who famously infiltrated the American Legislative Exchange
Council and exposed its machinations in
The Progressive magazine, manage to subdue his strongly held ideology? Because
it’s the only way to get things done, he
said.
“You find out what you have in common,
not what you don’t have in common,” he
explained to WiG during a visit early this
summer. He cited as current examples his
work with tea party Republicans on repealing the Patriot Act and stopping the TransPacific Partnership, which would become
the largest free trade agreement in history. Obama negotiated it, but progressive
Democrats are in opposition.
In 2013, Pocan joined with three Wisconsin Republican congressmen and more
than 70 other representatives from both
parties in creating a group called Problem
Solvers. The group primarily seeks to cut
wasteful government spending and gridlock caused by partisan one-upsmanship.
In May, Pocan stood with a group of supportive leaders around New York Mayor
Bill de Blasio as he announced a 13-point
progressive agenda. His goal, as he put it,
is to stop Democrats from “running away
P h o t o : co u r t e s y
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, center, takes the
podium at a press conference on July 23
to introduce the Equality Act, which would
protect LGBT people from discrimination
based on sexual orientation and gender
identity in the workplace and in housing,
as well as in access to credit and public
accommodations.
from the discussion of progressive economic policy.”
The message is the same one de Blasio
brought to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin during its annual meeting in June.
It’s based in part on the mayor’s achievements in New York, which include paid sick
leave and universal free pre-kindergarten.
But it also tackles national issues, calling for closing tax loopholes, enacting
meaningful immigration reforms and nixing trade deals that could harm American
workers, human rights abroad and the
environment.
Those are all reforms that Pocan supports.
While Pocan’s career is on the rise
and his political future looks bright, don’t
expect him to become one of those politicians who changes course based on the
direction of the political winds. Like de
Blasio, he’s unabashedly progressive and
proud of it.
Although people might not agree with
him, Pocan is widely respected for both
his authenticity and his ability to work
with the other side to obtain incremental
success. He’s neither a flip-flopper or a
demagogue.
Americablog’s Skye Winspur summed
up Pocan perfectly in a May editorial titled:
“Mark Pocan: A diamond in the congressional rough.”
He wrote: “It’s easy to look at Congress,
shake your head and complain that everything is awful and can’t ever get better. For
disaffected liberals around the country,
Mark Pocan is the alternative — the counterexample — showing that good people
can get elected to Congress and succeed
once they’re there.”
LOWEST PRICES! LARGEST SELECTION!
2015 W. St. Paul Ave. • Milwaukee, WI • (414) 933-0808 • www.bbclighting.com OPEN EVERYDAY! Mon - Sat: 9am - 5pm • Sun: 11am - 4pm
18
| August 27, 2015
19
| August 27, 2015
Pet
The joys and perils of fostering dogs
By Linda Lombard
AP writer
Ask anyone who fosters dogs and they’ll
tell you that everyone says it.
“I hear it almost every time I adopt
out a dog: ‘I don’t know how you do this,
I wouldn’t be able to let them go,’” says
Anne Auditore of Richmond, Virginia,
intake coordinator for Mid-Atlantic Pug
Rescue.
But many people who foster dogs have
pretty much the same reply: Sure, you
sometimes feel that way — but not as
much as you might think. Says Auditore,
“You can love them all, but they’re still not
a good fit for your family.”
The kids wouldn’t be able to stand it,
though, right? Forming an attachment and
then saying goodbye?
In fact, in Denise Dunn’s case, fostering
was her daughter’s idea.
“We had the dog for one day and she
was all, ‘We can never give this dog back,’”
says Dunn, who fosters for the Southside
SPCA in Virginia. “However, after several
days, she came to her senses and realized
we were not looking for another member
of our family, we’re looking to help find this
dog a home.”
OK, so maybe the kids are good with it,
but what about the dog you already have?
First impressions are important. “You
have to understand that each animal
is going to change the dynamic of your
household in a different way,” says Carrie
Santiago of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, who
fosters for The Southern Dog. “I always
introduce them in a neutral area. I don’t
bring a dog into my home and say, ‘Have a
free-for-all.’”
Supervise all early encounters, separating the dogs with crates, baby gates or
securely closed doors when you go out.
“From there, we slowly integrate them all
together — let them be together for short
amounts of time — and then, if that goes
well, we leave them out with our guys during the day,” says Auditore.
Still, aren’t these going to be dogs with
big problems? Sure, some of them. Auditore often fosters dogs who need surgery,
and others in her group specialize in blind,
deaf or old dogs. Santiago’s interests tend
toward behavioral rehabilitation.
“I’m really big on positive training to get
them socialized and more adoptable,” she
says. “I’m a sucker for the hard cases.”
Shelters in particular are often looking
for foster homes for animals that need
special attention. But many private rescue
groups have all their animals in foster
homes, and many of these are normal,
healthy dogs.
What Auditore’s group is looking for in
a foster home is simply a responsible dog
owner, and they need a lot of them: Last
year, they found homes for around 450
pugs.
You don’t need to live on a big ranch or
be home all day to foster an animal. “Most
of us work full time. A lot of people have
kids and families,” she says.
Volunteering with her group involves
basically the same process as adopting
an animal: filling out a form with basic
information about your home, family, and
schedule, as well as providing vet and
personal references. Then there’s a home
visit, to see which dogs will fit your situation.
“For example, our house has a lot of
stairs, so we’re not going to be a good
fit for a blind dog or a dog with mobility
issues,” says Auditore.
If you’re interested in fostering, research
how your local rescue groups work. Ask
how they place dogs in foster homes —
you shouldn’t be pressed to take on issues
you’re not comfortable with. Find out what
expenses are covered and whether you
need to use a particular vet.
How long you end up having a foster
pet depends on many factors — puppies,
for instance, tend to go faster — including how expeditiously paperwork is processed. So ask about the group’s average.
Find out how you’ll participate in finding
your foster pet a home. Your input should
be valued, since you know the dog’s behavior in a home.
Policies differ on who makes the final
decision. At shelters, it may be largely up
to staff. Mid-Atlantic Pug Rescue is at the
other extreme. “We leave it up to the fos-
ters, because they’re the ones (who) know
these dogs,” Auditore says.
OK, but what if you really don’t want to
give them up?
Some people do end up adopting their
foster pet, and while that’s jokingly called
a “foster failure,” it’s not necessarily bad.
Make sure you know the organization’s
policies here as well — you may get priority, but not at the expense of putting off
other applicants indefinitely.
In the end though, the idea is to let most
foster pets go, and yes, it can be bittersweet to say goodbye. “It gets easier over
time. The first one is the hardest,” according to Auditore.
But that’s where the real reward lies, as
Santiago learned when she saw her first
foster pet, whom she had nursed through
an illness, at the dog park a few months
later.
“It was so awesome to see him with his
new family,” she says. “That sealed the
deal — it’s worth every bit of energy you
put in.”
20
| August 27, 2015
Soggy Doggy, Puppy Pot: inventions by and for pet owners
By Sue Manning
AP writer
Joanna Rein knew there
was a way to prevent her rambunctious Labrador-collie mix
from tracking in mud, water
and drool from the soggy outdoors.
“The kids thought it was
funny. They’d chase the dog,”
said Rein, of Larchmont, New
York. “I’d run behind them all with towels.
Buddy thought it was a game.”
She used her dirty floors to her
advantage, creating a line of dog-drying doormats and special towels called
Soggy Doggy.
With people putting more money into
products for pets — whether for pampering, aiding aging animals or just keeping
the house clean — some entrepreneurial
owners have invented their own helpful
devices. And some, like Rein, have turned
them into multimillion-dollar ventures.
“Most of the small companies that enter
the industry do it because they have a pet
New doggy products
include, clockwise from
top: Soggy Doggy Doormat, Pup Pot, and Groom
Genie.
Here are some popular
pet-owner inventions:
SOGGY DOGGY
and identified a need that wasn’t being
addressed,” said Andrew Darmohraj, executive vice president of the American Pet
Products Association.
Smaller companies make up more than
half of the group’s membership. They form
the core of the industry, which is expected
to account for more than $42 billion in U.S.
spending this year, he said.
Rein started her product line by trying
to make her own doormat to soak up the
slop when Buddy got drenched in rain or
rolled around in the mud.
She paid a tailor to sew hundreds of
orange shammy cloths over a thin layer of
foam, put it at the back door and waited
for her dog.
“He took one look and jumped over
it,” she said. “He would not step on it,
PRODUCTS next page
#pet0utpost #naturallylocal
monday
tues-thu
friday
saturday
sunday
naturally local™
www.thepetoutpost.com
closed
11 - 7pm
11- 6pm
10 - 5pm
11 - 4pm
Health food store for pets
Natural + local options
414-962-POST
4604 N Wilson
Shorewood
PRODUCTS from prior page
wouldn’t go near it.”
Then, Rein found microfiber shammies
made with parachute nylon, which her dog
didn’t mind stopping on for a shake.
Her business got a break when rain and
snow started in November 2010 and seemingly didn’t stop until the next June. She
sold the mats from her car trunk but ran
out of them in weeks, while more orders
came in.
Since then, she’s sold hundreds of thousands of mats and created “slopmats,”
which sop up slobber and water under dog
bowls, and “Slobber Swabbers,” a handled
fabric brush that collects drool from pets’
faces or from windows and car seats.
GROOM GENIE
Rikki Mor of Denver converted her hair
detangler for kids into a popular pet brush.
Shaped like a dog paw, the Groom Genie
works on long or short coats and spreads
natural oils through the fur, she said.
“It’s turned my life upside down in ways
I never expected,” Mor said. “I love that
it’s tested on humans and good enough
for pets.”
It emerged from the Knot Genie, a million-dollar online empire started six years
ago and inspired by her three long-haired
daughters.
Mor promised them to try to end the
daily detangling nightmare that always
ended with tears. She met with consul-
| August 27, 2015
PET BRIEF
tants and ran tests.
She eliminated the balls on the end
of bristles and reshaped the bristles and
base, which eliminated pain.
Mor got appreciative letters from parents, then received notes from pet owners
saying the brushes calmed their dogs and
cats.
PUP POT
These bright-orange products to make,
serve and store meals for dogs emerged
from the pup-centric minds of Kris Rotonda and Denise Fernandez, creators of the
online dating service YouMustLoveDogsDating.com.
After launching the matchmaking site
in 2013, they started the Doggy Cooking
Network on YouTube last year.
Their Pup Pot line comes with a 3.8quart stainless steel cooking pot, a pawshaped serving base, and two serving and
storage bowls that are microwave-safe. As
a bonus, there’s an e-book of the couple’s
favorite recipes.
On the Web …
www.soggydoggydoormat.com
www.groomgenie.com
www.puppot.com
New test gauges
dogs’ city savvy
They’re skills any city dweller
needs: Riding calmly in elevators.
Hopping a cab or subway. And ignoring tempting food all around you.
Magneto, a 170-pound Leonberger
dog, was out to show he could do all
that as he sauntered along a crowded
Manhattan street. He waited patiently with owner Morgan Avila for a light
to change, clambered in and out of a
curbside car, and proved unfazed by
a fallen McDonald’s bag and a hug
from a passerby.
Soon, Magneto was officially
declared an “urban canine good citizen,” the American Kennel Club’s
new title recognizing proper city-dog
deportment.
“This ultimately will help the cause
of dogs everywhere,” AKC training
director Mary Burch says.
The test is debuting at a time when
Americans are showing increasing
interest in bringing dogs along in
public settings. States including California, Florida and Maryland have in
the last decade started allowing dogs
on restaurant patios, and similar legislation is waiting to be sent to New
York’s governor.
— AP
21
22
262-478-1500
| August 27, 2015
We Cater
to Your
Lifestyle
Our family of residences caters to
the individual. Choose the lifestyle
that makes you unique and tell
us how you want to live your life.
We’ll make it work for you.
414-289 -9600
In the suburbs:
Full continuum of care
sarah Chudnow Community
10995 n. Market st., Mequon
www.sarahchudnow.org
In the CIty:
Independent/Assisted Living
Chai Point senior Living
1400 n. Prospect Ave., Milw.
www.chaipoint.org
Long-term and Memory Care; Rehab
Jewish home and Care Center
1414 n. Prospect Ave., Milw.
www.jhccmilwaukee.org
414-277-8852
Your Jewish options
in Wisconsin
23
| August 27, 2015
ut on the town
Aug. 27 – Sept. 10
A curated calendar of upcoming events
99th Birthday Party for Old Rusty
the Rail Bridge 10 a.m. Aug. 29
‘Ignite: A Hip-Hop Dance Experience’ 8 p.m. Aug. 29, 2:30 and 6 p.m. Aug. 30
Bet you didn’t know the rickety bridge in Walker’s Point
had its own name — or that it carries mile-long trains
packed full to the brim with highly flammable crude oil right
past residents every day, despite its crumbling supports. In
an effort to raise awareness of the issue, organizers with
Citizens Acting for Rail Safety (an organization concerned
about the increasing number of those dangerous trains)
have arranged a party to celebrate the bridge’s 99th anniversary. The free, family-friendly event will feature comedy
sketches, cake, a piñata and more. At First and Oregon
Streets, Milwaukee. Visit CARS’ Facebook page for more
details.
Danceworks wraps up its summer DanceLAB series with Ignite, its annual hip-hop performance that
turns the company’s usual repertoire on its head. Ignite gives top local crews a chance to shine, with groups
including Boombox Babies, Revamped and Take Notez Dance Crew deploying nearly 60 dancers. At 1661 N.
Water St., Milwaukee. Tickets are $15, $18 for reserved seating and $10 for students and seniors. Visit danceworksmke.com or call 414-277-8480.
‘Out of the Shadows’
Aug. 30
Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society’s
summer season is over, but they have a special presentation ready to unveil in Madison. Out of the Shadows: Rediscovering Jewish
Music, Literature and Theater is a one-day
event in which the company partners with a
team of international scholars to celebrate
the rich heritage of Jewish culture. Sessions
in the morning will feature discussions of
works by Jewish artists previously tucked
away in archives at Mills Hall (3561 Mosse
Humanities Building, 455 N. Park St.), but
the afternoon and evening is when the performances will truly take off. A 2:30 p.m.
concert at the First Unitarian Meeting House
(900 University Bay Drive) will feature a
variety of works by composers including
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (pictured), while
a two-part cabaret will be presented at
Overture Hall (201 State St.) at 7 p.m. Visit
bachdancinganddynamite.org for details.
WMSE Backyard BBQ
4 to 11 p.m. Sept. 5
This being Wisconsin and all, you’re running out of
opportunities to enjoy outdoor festivities quickly. Lucky
there’s still the annual WMSE Backyard BBQ, a Labor Day
weekend shindig that’ll serve as a great kickoff to the fall.
As always, the Milwaukee Film Festival will be distributing
its official brochure there, but the real draw is the musical
guests. This year, the radio station will be inviting “savior of rock ’n’ roll” JD McPherson as the headliner, along
with a number of other acts including Milwaukee’s own
Goth-Americana band Devil Met Contention. At Cathedral
Square Park, Milwaukee. Admission is free. Visit wmse.org
for full details.
24
ut on
on the
the town
town
ut
| August 27, 2015
Labor Fest 11 a.m. Sept. 7
Labor Day isn’t just an opportunity for a
three-day weekend. It’s a day to honor the
American labor movement that ensured
many of the social and economic achievements we’ve come to take for granted in
our country — some of which are now
under attack. For this year’s Labor Fest, the
Milwaukee Area Labor Council has chosen
to focus on the city’s youth, and helping to
galvanize them as unions move forward in
the 21st century. The event will begin with
a parade at 11 a.m., followed by a celebration at the Summerfest grounds featuring a
raffle with a 2016 Harley as the top prize, a
classic car show, and food and beverages for
purchase. Admission is free. Visit milwaukeelabor.org for more information.
‘Romeo & Juliet’
2 p.m. Sept. 5, 6 and 12
It’s common for companies of young
actors to take on Romeo & Juliet, but less so
for those acting companies to be entirely
composed of young teenage women. The
newly formed Ganymede Ensemble is that
exception, a new group that features women
from high schools across the greater Milwaukee area. Their goal in this and future
shows is to produce “swift, accessible” theater, and provide an opportunity specifically
for other young women thinking about a
career in the industry. At Kadish Park, 308
E. Lloyd St., Milwaukee. Admission is free.
More information can be found on The
Ganymede Ensemble’s Facebook page.
Taste of Madison Sept. 5 and 6
Make sure you eat a light breakfast this Labor Day weekend.
You’ll need the space for Taste of Madison, the annual
celebration of all things culinary and gastronomical.
Vendors representing 89 different local restaurants
will surround Capitol Square for the weekend, each
offering affordable examples of their regular menu fare.
A variety of musical acts will also perform throughout
the day, and volunteers’ hourly earnings will go to
benefit Madison-area nonprofits. Visit tasteofmadison.com for a full list of attendees.
Garden Party
Fair Wisconsin’s
Sunday, September 20, 2015
11am - 1pm
With special guest
Colonel Sheri Swokowski (Ret)
for equality
at the home of
Daniel D Schmidt and Mark G Berr y
2977 N Summit Ave
Milwaukee WI. 53211
Sponsorship Levels: $1,000, $500, $250, $100
Suggested Contribution: $50
RSVP at fairwisconsin.com
Special Thanks to Our Media Sponsor The Wisconsin Gazette
| August 27, 2015
25
27––Aug.
Sept. 13
10
AAcurated
curatedcalendar
calendarofofupcoming
upcomingevents
events August
July 30
Penn & Teller 8 p.m. Sept. 11
At this point, Penn & Teller are practically an institution, so it’s hard to
remember how innovative and jarring
their comedy/magic act was when they
got their start 40 years ago. Since, the
duo has dazzled audiences worldwide
with their tricks and banter, hosted
TV shows and specials, and has their
own Vegas residency. For this particular night, though, they’ll be appearing
— and disappearing — at Milwaukee’s
Riverside Theater. At 116 W. Wisconsin
Ave. Tickets range from $30 to $70.
Visit pabsttheater.org or call 414-2863663.
Keep reading for…
Jen Kirkman: Comedian Jen Kirkman brings
her standup tour to Milwaukee, but it’s no copy
of her recent Netflix special. Sept. 9. See page 31.
‘Mozart?!’: Present Music kicks off its season
with a concert that features both the work of
past master Mozart and contemporary artists
inspired by his music. Sept. 5. See page 37.
in Milwaukee
Marriage is a sacred bond of love between two people –
let us assist you in celebrating the beauty of your union!
Unity in Milwaukee is a non-denominational church that
honors all faith families. We perform ceremonies for
members, non-members and same sex couples.
We can accommodate short notice ceremonies and
our chapel seats up to 140 guests. Contact us today
for more information or to schedule a ceremony!
- Reverend Mari Gabrielson, Senior Minister
www.unitychurchinmilwaukee.org • 414-475-0105
Unity in Milwaukee • 1717 N. 73rd Street • Wauwatosa, WI 53213
Mondo Lucha 8 p.m. Sept. 11
Of all the strange events that call Milwaukee home, Mondo Lucha reigns supreme.
High-flying Mexican wrestling and highclass burlesque performance would be
unique events in and of themselves, but
together they’re an exceptional way to
spend an evening. Add in rising Milwaukee
band Whips and you’ve got yourself quite
the show. At Turner Hall Ballroom, 1034
N. Fourth St. Tickets are $20 in advance
and $25 day-of-show, with front row and
VIP balcony seats available for $30 and
$35, respectively. Call 414-286-3663 or visit
pabsttheater.org to order tickets.
26
| August 27, 2015
| August 27, 2015
Honey honey, how you thrill us
By Michael Muckian
Contributing writer
It’s succulent and sweet, dripping golden
from the spoon. Its viscosity causes it to
move in slow motion and its natural colors
sparkle in the sun. It both brightens the palate and strengthens the body.
There is nothing quite like honey, the
result of natural processes and hard labor on
the part of busy bees everywhere. Although
a small part of the agricultural industry overall, honey plays a valuable role in nutrition,
according to Andy Hemken, owner of Hemken Honey Co., which commercially produces honey from 530 hives near Big Bend and
helped install and maintains the observation
beehive at the Milwaukee County Zoo.
“Honey is a natural sweetener that easily absorbs into the bloodstream,” says
Hemken, also the former president of the
Wisconsin Honey Producers Association.
“Athletes can use honey before, during and
after competitions because it’s a pure carbohydrate that doesn’t take time for the body
to digest.”
In addition, honey is a natural sweetener
and emulsifier, acting as an effective thickening agent for sauces and dressings. It is a
natural cough suppressant and humectant,
meaning that it attracts and maintains moisture, which makes it a go-to ingredient for
many skin care products.
Bees produce honey as they extract nectar
from flowers, which they inject with enzymes
to break it down into simple sugars that are
stored in the cells of the honeycomb. The
pollination of the flowers is actually a happy
byproduct of their efforts, according to the
National Honey Board, a trade organization
based in Firestone, Colorado.
Once in the comb, rapid fanning by the
bees’ wings causes much of the nectar’s
liquid to evaporate, which leads to honey’s
viscous texture. The honey is kept and stored
as food for the bee colony, although beekeepers, known as apiarists, also harvest and
sell it as an agricultural product.
In the end, the small amounts of pollen
that find their way into the honey are most
often filtered out as the honey is heated and
refined to remove impurities. Honey may
eventually change color, and its aroma and
flavor may fade, but as a food product it can
last for decades.
Until recently, Wisconsin was among the
top 10 honey producing states. The state
fell to 15th place in 2014 after a brutal
winter destroyed a significant number of
hives along with native vegetation on which
the bees depended, according to a National
Agricultural Statistics Service report.
Wisconsin honey production fell 21.2 percent to $664 million compared to 2013, the
report said. It was the largest decline since
1999, when production declined more than
30 percent, but was the first time Wisconsin
dropped out of the top 10.
An estimated 55 percent of the state’s
hives were wiped out between October 2013
and April 2014, according to a state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer
Protection study. A continued loss of forage
area also has affected production by the
state’s honey colonies, which now number
roughly 53,000, a decline of 10 percent in
2014.
Unbridled use of pesticides also has taken
its toll on bee populations, both in Wisconsin
and the rest of the country, Hemken says.
“The bees are dying,” says Hemken, who
notes that nationwide bees pollinate an estimated $19 billion worth of crops each year
in the process of gathering nectar. “This is a
serious problem.”
Hemken and other apiarists sell bee packages, each generally consisting of one queen
and 6,000 worker bees, to other growers
in an attempt to slow the bee population’s
decline. Last year he sold more than 1,000
such packages, and he knows beekeepers
who sell many more.
Wisconsin beekeepers also are working more diligently with owners of prairies, orchards and, in Hemken’s case, several pumpkin patches to maintain pollination
relationships that aren’t threatened by pesticide usage that could be fatal to the bees.
Focusing bee populations on specific varieties of blossoms also helps cultivate the
varietal nature of honey, Hemken says.
There are about 300 varietal honey types
in the United States, according to Hemken.
“Southeast Wisconsin is a good spot for honeybees because there are so many flowers.”
Hemken’s favorite is honey produced from
the blossoms of the tupelo tree, native to
southern Georgia and the Florida Panhandle.
The resulting honey is almost white or lightly
amber, with a mild favor and pleasant aroma.
Unlike some other honeys, tupelo honey
doesn’t granulate.
“Buckwheat honey also is really good and
has a strong, individualized taste,” Hemken
adds. However, “it’s hard to find locally produced buckwheat honey.”
Other popular types include alfalfa honey,
which is light both in color and flavor; avocado honey, with a dark color and rich, buttery taste; blueberry honey, imbued with a
natural blueberry flavor; clover honey, which
comes in a variety of flavors and colors
based on the type of clover the bees visited;
and orange blossom honey, which boasts the
distinctive flavor and aroma of its namesake
flower.
The most often seen type, wildflower
honey, is really a catchall for honey made by
bees that have foraged far and wide, grabbing whatever nectar they could find from
whatever flowers they came across.
“My bees are rascals and they go everywhere,” Hemken says. “Wildflower honey is
generally the result.”
27
28
| August 27, 2015
Central Wis. breweries have winning beers on tap
By Michael Muckian
Contributing writer
Beer is central to many Wisconsinites,
but many of them don’t think of central
Wisconsin as a hub for it. That’s a misconception worth changing. The heart of our
state features a variety of breweries new and
old, some highly acclaimed and others little
known outside their communities.
If you find yourself wandering around the
central part of Wisconsin, here are some
places to stop in for a cool one or two.
The first brewery on our list also is the
oldest. Founded in 1857, Stevens Point Brewery is the fifth oldest brewery in the United
States. It even provided beer to Union troops
during the Civil War.
The little brewery survived Prohibition, the
Depression and other historic milestones
under the oversight of a variety of brewers/
owners. In 2002, the brewery was purchased
by Milwaukee real estate developers Joe
Martino and Jim Wiechmann. The pair has
continued and expanded on the brewery’s
158-year-old traditions.
Point beers have enjoyed some long-term
popularity, including being named the best
beer in America in 1973 by the late Chicago
newspaper columnist Mike Royko. Since
then the brewery has widened its variety of
brews, including the higher-alcohol Whole
Hog Ltd. specialty series, seasonal brews
and gourmet sodas. The entertaining brewery tour always includes samples.
P h o t o : O ’ s o B r e w i ng C o .
Many of O’So’s beers are more extreme offerings, like the brandy barrel-aged Grandpa’s
Got a Gun and wheat wine Wheat You Talkin’ ‘bout Willis?
A growing number of beer geeks have
discovered and are reveling in the beers
from O’so Brewing Co., located in the Stevens Point suburb of Plover. Brewers James
Vokoun and Mark Spilker specialize in the
unexpected and their dedication to the craft
of craft brewing shows.
Based in the Village Park strip mall off of
Interstate 39, just south of Stevens Point,
O’so boasts one of the nicest tasting rooms
of any craft brewer in the state. The more
than 20 tap lines feature nan extensive array
of O’so’s well-known, seasonal and one-off
brew and a rich cross-section of some of the
state’s best craft beers, assuring that there is
something for every taste.
If you’re stopping by, make sure you bring
your designated driver so you can tap into
some of O’so’s extreme offerings, including
Grandpa’s Got a Gun (brandy barrel-aged
American strong ale), Wheat You Talkin’
’bout, Willis? (brandy barrel-aged wheat
wine) and Spike’s Maple (an American
strong ale made with 100 percent maple
sap rather than water). At 10 percent ABV,
this last beer is sure to “spike” your blood
alcohol content.
Travel 20 minutes east of Plover and you
will hit the tiny community of Amherst.
Within an even tinier industrial park you
will find Central Waters Brewing Co., which,
along with O’so, has helped make central
Wisconsin a craft beer mecca.
Owners Paul Graham and Anello Mollica
have expanded on the brewery, first founded
in Junction City in 1995, to embrace a wide
array of craft beers that have established
Central Waters’ reputation statewide. The
small tasting room that fronts the brewing
tanks offers a comfortable atmosphere and
a wide array of interesting brews.
Known for beers like Mudpuppy Porter,
Hop Rise Session Ale and Satin Solitude
Imperial Stout, all featuring a heron on the
label and available in area bottle shops,
Central Waters’ Brewers Reserve series is
capturing the public’s palates. Our personal
favorite is the Great American Beer Festival
Gold Medal Award Winner Bourbon Barrel
Cherry Stout. Produced with 75 pounds of
tart Door County cherries added to each
barrel, the resulting beer is richly textured,
sublimely flavorful and deceptively strong.
The brewery’s Space Ghost Imperial Stout,
brewed with Anaheim chiles and Ghost peppers, also got top marks. Buy it if you can
find it.
Central Waters isn’t the only brewery to
festoon their labels with a heron. The Blue
BEER next page
| August 27, 2015
29
BEER from prior page
Heron Brewpub in Marshfield — which actually has
a white heron in its logo — differs from the previous
breweries in also being a full-service restaurant. The
beers are balanced by a menu of pub standards and
a few out-of-the-ordinary dishes, which received top
marks on TripAdvisor and other sites.
Blue Heron regularly features three standards:
Honey Blonde Ale, Tiger’s Eye Mild English Ale and
Hop Heart IPA. But the brewery also produces interesting seasonals on a revolving schedule.
This month you will find Fainting Goat Maibock
and Hip Wader Pale Ale on tap. Tappers Tripel Ale
promises to have a little more kick than the rest of
the lineup, while Rauch ‘Em Sock ‘Em Smoked Ale
and Thunder Echo White Stout are varieties rarely
seen. Couple either with the brewpub’s elk burger or
“Grown Up Mac and Cheese” and the results will be
more than satisfactory.
The Marathon County community of Wausau was
originally known as Big Bull Falls when it was founded
in 1836, owing largely to the particular bend of the
Wisconsin River on which it is located. The name is
carried on with Bull Falls Brewery, one of three craft
breweries in Wausau. Brewmaster Mike Zamzow has
created a variety of brews, some emblematic of the
craft brew market and others a little more unusual.
Zamzow comes with a distinct brewing legacy.
His great uncle Walter Zamzow was the secretary at
Marathon City Brewery in Wausau, which closed in
1966 after operating for 75 years. Bull Falls’ signature
beer, Marathon Lager, is based on the original Marathon Superfine recipe. The premium beer, lightly
hopped, recreates an area favorite from an earlier
time.
Zamzow also brews a Bock Lager, Bourbon Barrel Stout and Hefeweizen in addition to Holzhacker
Lager (a Munich-style Helles beer). Midnight Star
(a German-style schwarzbier) and Hop Worthy, the
brewery’s IPA. The emphasis on lagers, which are
more difficult and more costly to produce, sets Bull
Falls apart from much of the competition.
Red Eye Brewing Co., also located in Wausau, is
another brewpub, this one with a menu emphasizing
wood-fired pizza. The menu also lists burgers, paninis and wraps, as well as sides, salads and starters.
Brewer Kevin Eichelberger has taken his brewery a
different direction than Bull Falls, with an emphasis
on IPAs, Belgian-style brews and other creative fare.
Eichelberger’s current tap list includes Bloom (a
Belgian wheat beer), Thrust (an American-style IPA),
Scarlet 7 (a Belgian-style “dubbel”) and Charlatan
(an imperial stout.)
Wausau also is home to one of five Great Dane
Pub & Brewing Co. locations, the northernmost and
the only one outside the Madison metro area. Those
familiar with the Madison locations will recognize
the beer menu, which includes Crop
Circle Wheat, Emerald Isle Stout,
Stone of Scone Scotch Ale and other
favorites developed by Madison
brewmaster Rob LoBreglio.
The Wausau Great Dane also
offers a full service food menu much
like its Madison cousins.
B R E W E R I E S F E AT U R E D
Stevens Point Brewery
2617 Water St., Stevens Point
715-344-9310
pointbeer.com
Bull Falls Brewery
901 E. Thomas St., Wausau
715-842-2337
bullfallsbrewery.com
O’so Brewing Co.
3028 Village Park, Plover
715-254-2163
osobrewing.com
Red Eye Brewing Co.
612 Washington St., Wausau
715-843-7334
redeyebrewing.com
Central Waters Brewing Co.
351 Allen St., Amherst
715-824-2739
centralwaters.com
Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co.
2305 Sherman St., Wausau
715-845-3000
greatdanepub.com
Blue Heron Brewpub
108 W. 9th St., Marshfield
715-389-1868
blueheronbrewpub.com
30
| August 27, 2015
| August 27, 2015
!
T
U
WiGO
31
Comedian Jen Kirkman is feeling fine. Promise.
By Colton Dunham
Contributing writer
In the opening of her Netflix special, I’m
Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel Fine), comedian,
author and podcaster Jen Kirkman tells a
story about overhearing someone ordering
a drink and slowly realizing that person cannot tell the difference between a lemon and
a lime. It’s like she’s a dear friend venting her
frustrations with the world already, and it’s
only been a few minutes.
That’s the brilliance of the special.
Recorded shortly after her 40th birthday
and the release of her successful memoir I
Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a
Happy Life Without Kids, the Netflix special
shows us what Kirkman’s best at: autobiographical and shameless banter about the
various elements of her kidless, post-divorce
life — from being an unintentional cougar to
finding gray pubic hairs.
In addition to her Netflix special and book,
Kirkman is known for her appearances as
a panelist and writer for Chelsea Lately and
a narrator for the Comedy Central series
Drunk History (and the original Funny or Die
webseries). She’s also recorded two comedy
albums — 2006’s Self Help and 2011’s Hail
to the Freaks — and is the host of the I Seem
Fun podcast, which largely consists of her
speaking about whatever is on her mind
while sitting around her home.
Kirkman is on a nationwide tour, which
includes a stop at Milwaukee’s Turner Hall
Ballroom on Sept. 9.
She spoke with WiG about her special, her
comedic approach, dying alone, the chances
of her own TV show and her amusing idea of
an Uber horse.
You’re on tour to promote your Netflix
special, I’m Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel
Fine). A Netflix special is a pretty big deal.
How did that come about?
It is. Thank you. I’m really just on tour
because that’s what I do for a living. I think
I sound stupid when I say I’m on tour to
promote it like as if Netflix needs my help
(laughs). They got the advertising dollars
and they’re obviously in everybody’s home.
Actually, to be honest, I’ve never wanted
to do a comedy special. I preferred albums
for a long time. I didn’t like putting my physical self on tape. I don’t like looking at my
mannerisms. I don’t like the idea of having to
pick an outfit that’s going to live on for years
on TV that might look dated in a few years. I
was always fine not doing one.
Over the years, the only available option
to comedians before HBO and Showtime
was Comedy Central, who I didn’t want to
work with because I don’t believe in editing
or having commercial breaks in comedy. I
think it’s not a good way to present it. So I
was fine not having a comedy special, but
then when Netflix started doing them, I
thought that seemed like a good place to do
it. I knew this woman who worked there and
she made it kind of known that she’d like to
do one with me. We just kept pursuing it.
It was actually in the works for like a year
before I was able to film it. So I was really
excited, but I couldn’t say anything.
During your Netflix special, rather than
cutting away to the audience every few
minutes for reaction shots, the camera
stays on you while you go from topic to
topic, making it more like you’re ranting to a
group of friends about topics that are both
hilarious and relatable. Was this something
that you were always comfortable with
from the get-go?
It’s funny because I get called a storyteller comedian, which I don’t totally think
is true because real storytellers are doing
off-Broadway shows and there aren’t laughs
for 10 minutes. I’ve always thought what I’ve
been doing is normal comedy like anybody
else. I think the way I perform it makes it look
like I’m talking off the top of my head or telling a story, which I think is a skill I’ve honed
over the years. I feel like if you measure out
my laughs per minute, even to a one-liner
comic, it’d be the same.
I purposely chose not to have any cutaway
shuts and the person who directed my special, Lance Bangs, I believe he really doesn’t
like that either. I feel like you can edit without
having to cut to the audience. You can cut
to a different camera angle on a person. I
also don’t think the audience at home needs
to be told when they should laugh because
you can decide that for yourself. Not every
joke is going to hit home with everybody, so
laugh when you want. When they cut to a
group of people going, “Ah ha ha!”,
it’s like, “Don’t tell me when
to laugh.” (laughs) When
you go see a comedy
show, you’re just
looking at
the person. I don’t know anybody who would
want to turn on the TV and see the audience.
It never looks real, either. It looks like it’s
inserted from a different show.
What’s really funny, though, is some people who have hated my special … have commented that I put a laugh track in because …
no one was laughing. I thought that was kind
of funny that people have noticed that and
people thought it was for tragic reasons
(laughs).
What is the inspiration
behind the title? You don’t
actually feel like you’re going
to die alone, do you?
I think everybody does.
People have taken it to mean
it’s about dating, which is
really weird because obviously I’ve been single, I’ve
been married, I’ve been
engaged, I’ve been divorced,
I’ve been in a relationship and I’ve been with
friends with benefits.
I’ve had every iteration of dating in my
life, and always will
probably, but the
special was not
about being single.
It’s actually what
I’ve wanted to call
my first book. It’s things people have said
to me about not having kids. It’s what
people said to me: “You’re going to die
alone if you don’t have kids.” My answer
to them is, “Fine. I’m going to die alone
and I’ll be fine.”
… If you die, you die alone anyways,
even if you’re in a bed next to someone.
It’s your own journey. We all really do
die alone. You can be as suited up as
KIRKMAN next page
32
| August 27, 2015
KIRKMAN from prior page
you want. You can be married with kids
and think, “Oh, look at how great my life is
going to be when I’m older.” But you really
don’t know if anybody is still going to be
around. Unfortunately, most people take it to
mean I’m lamenting some kind of not-beingmarried thing. I usually get people consoling
me and I’m like, “It is a comedy title.” When
I said what the name of the special was, a
few people on Twitter were like, “Aw, you
won’t die alone. You’re cute.” I’m like, “Ugh.
Forget it.”
Flossie
loves Tai Chi.
After retiring, Flossie was feeling lonely and looking for a way to stay
active. Thanks to the United Way-funded program KOACH (“strength” in
Hebrew) at the Jewish Community Center, Flossie found a way to meet new
people and stay physically active within the community.
Last year, 94% of older adults who attended United Way-funded
programming made new friends and left the program feeling supported.
The best part of KOACH is Flossie is no longer alone. Today the 82-year-old
is stronger and her schedule is jam-packed with water aerobics, Tai Chi
Classes and games of rummy that help her live a healthy, engaged life.
Learn more about how you can get involved at UnitedWayGMWC.org
UnitedWayGMWC.org
@UnitedWayGMWC
/UnitedWayGMWC
UNITED WAY of GREATER MILWAUKEE & WAUKESHA COUNTY
From show to show, do you strive to bring
new material that audiences haven’t heard
before to the stage?
This tour is not material from the special because the special was stuff that I’ve
done on the road for three years. The cities
I’ve been to, where people have seen me
over the past three years, they’ve already
seen that stuff. For them, watching the
special was a repeat of what they’ve seen
live. There’s no getting away with doing
old stuff anymore. This tour is all new
stuff, with one or two bits from the special
because I do think that one of the bits from
the special was pretty new. The joke is
about a gray pubic hair. So I’ll keep growing and growing with that premise, as I get
older and things continue to break down in
my body or change (laughs). That one will
probably live on.
There is one joke about a woman who
marries a cat that has become sort of
relevant again, now that we have marriage
equality but (there are) senators who are
still saying the bestiality thing, so I’ll keep
that in. I think people do remember that
from the special, but for some reason I
think it’s such a silly, dumb bit that I think
people like it and I’ve actually had people
say, “I came to your show and I brought
my friend who didn’t know you and I was
telling her about your stuff and I’m glad
you did some of the jokes that I told her.”
For the most part, I don’t think people
want to see what they’ve already seen
because it’s hard to laugh when you know
it’s coming. Halfway through my tour, I
just changed the name of it to “An Evening
with Jen Kirkman” and not the name of the
special because people were telling me,
“If it’s your special, then I’m not going to
come because I’ve already seen it.” Which
is stupid anyway, because even if it’s the
exact same thing, it’s always different live.
I’ve read recently that you’re working
on your second book. Will this be a direct
follow-up to I Can Barely Take Care of Myself
or will this be something entirely different?
It’s pretty similar. I mean, it’s not similar,
but it’s a pretty direct follow-up. I kind of
knew when I was writing the first one that I
wanted to write a second one. I knew some
of the stuff that I wanted to write about and
as the years went by, I lived a little and had
more experiences so it’s the same thing,
like a memoir-style, comedic essays, but it
jumps around topics a lot more than I Can
Barely Take Care of Myself, which was really
about not wanting kids and all that stuff.
This is all different kind of things about
traveling, family, divorcing, work and stupid
things like my neighbor who won’t stop
knocking on my door.
That’s coming out in April of next year. It’s
pretty much written. There’s just a couple of
edits here and there that have to be done. I
think people will like it because it does cover
so many different topics, so there’s something for everyone. A lot of the stuff in the
podcast will be in the book, but better with
a lot less rambling. There’ll be complete
sentences.
When it comes to shows about comedians on television, all the rage right now is
about Louie C.K. and Marc Maron (who star
in and produce their own shows). I’d personally love to see you have your own show
where you’re not only the star, but you’re
also the writer, producer, director, etc. Do
you think the chances are high of seeing
such a thing happen? Better yet, would you
want such a thing to happen?
I tried. It was passed on by over 20 networks. FX bought a show called Jen that
was going to be like a Maron or a Louie.
They bought it, I wrote the pilot, and they
paid me to write the script but it just didn’t
get picked up into a pilot.
Most comedians that you know or like,
our agents would dump us if we didn’t try
to pitch a show about our lives because
that’s how they make their money if we get
a TV gig. That’s part of being a comedian
on the road. You pitch TV shows. All of us
pitch multiple shows a year and all the different levels you can get to are: someone
pays you to write a script, and then after
that they could pick it up and make a pilot,
but the pilot doesn’t go to series. There’s
like six levels of all that crap. We do it all
the time under the radar; nobody knows.
The odds are just so insanely crazy.
It’s nothing that like breaks our hearts
because we always have stand-up, which
is what we want to do first and foremost.
I think most of us would say that the only
reason we’d want a TV show is so that
more people can come see us on the road.
I tried, but I’m glad it didn’t get made for
many reasons that are boring. I wasn’t
working on it with the right people and I
don’t like the show that I wrote anymore
so I’m fine with that.
I’ve worked in TV shows my whole life
and it’s not what it’s cracked up to be. It’s a
lot of work. There’s a lot of politics. There’s
a lot of crap you don’t have to deal with in
stand-up.
So, I was Twitter-stalking you earlier,
and I read your prediction of an Uber Horse
being the next big thing in transportation.
Can you please elaborate?
I’ve gotten picked up in an Uber in Canada with a huge dent on the side, and I was
like, “Hmm, that doesn’t make me feel that
confident.” It’s like you’re hitchhiking. I’m
really just getting into a stranger’s car. …
Uber Horse was just a joke, but it’s getting
to the point where it went from nice SUV
to someone’s car that has a dent, so probably what’s next is someone bringing their
horse to pick you up. I think it will happen
someday. It should.
33
| August 27, 2015
Olbrich Gardens set to ‘gleam’
By Jay Rath
Contributing writer
Call it Art Nouveau for the high-tech age:
landscape, light and sculpture merge in a
cutting-edge exhibit at Madison’s Olbrich
Botanical Gardens this fall.
“The projects are diverse and very exciting,” says David Wells, artistic director of
GLEAM: Art in a New Light, which opens Sept.
2. “They’ll invigorate viewing. They will provide counterpoints to nature yet be engaged
with the nature of the gardens themselves.”
Wells previously curated Art on Site,
an exhibit of site-specific installations at
Olbrich in conjunction with the Madison
Museum of Contemporary Art, in 2004. He
says that combining light, sculpture and public gardens is an artistic trend that’s growing
nationally.
For GLEAM, “we started by choosing the
sculptors, and then we paired them with
lighting designers who have experience with
landscape lighting,” says Wells, gallery director at Edgewood College and formerly executive director of Edenfred, a now-defunct artist residency center. The artists and designers worked as teams with garden staff.
The works will include:
“Alighting” — A 30-times life-size dragonfly, made of color-shifting glass and
metal, illustrating characteristics of the eastern pondhawk and roseate skimmer species; by artists Laura Richards and William
Grant Turnbull, and lighting designer Patrick
Devereux.
“Florid & Droll” — Sculptural beacons
made from reclaimed horticultural tools will
showcase backlit stained glass imagery, eliciting whimsy and a sense of discovery; by
artist Karl Unnasch and lighting designer
Jon Adams.
“Luminous Grass” — Plant forms resembling reeds and tall grasses will be interfused with glowing, pulsing color, creating
the illusion of movement as the sun sets; by
artist Aaron Laux and lighting designer Joe
Hanauer.
“Murmuration” — Bright orange and red
abstract shapes will subtly sway in the wind,
evoking images of starlings in flight; by artist
Nadia Niggli and lighting designer Pat Blair.
“Rearview Stream” — Cool blue and violet lights will illuminate a playful installation
of rear-view mirrors situated in a stream-like
pattern, suggesting water and motion; by
artists Dianne Soffa and Tom Kovacich, and
lighting designer Craig Kittleson.
“Voices” — A field of amber-colored glass
tongues will resemble wheat blowing in the
wind. Each piece will display a regional word
and its definition, celebrating our interconnectedness; by artists Kristin M. Thielking
and Keven Brunett, and lighting designers
Matt Hanna and Kevin Smits.
Artists were selected through a juried process. Joel Reinders, of Reinders Inc., serves
as lead lighting designer for the complete
exhibit.
GLEAM: Art in a New Light is a fundraiser
for Olbrich Botanical Gardens, 3330 Atwood
Ave. It may be viewed 7:30-10:30 p.m.
Wednesdays through Fridays, Sept. 2-Oct.
30. Tickets range from $5 to $12 and are
available at the door and, starting Aug. 12,
online.
An opening reception featuring Wells and
the artists will be held 7:30-10:30 p.m. Aug.
28. The event will include live music and a
cash bar. Tickets are $20 for Olbrich members and $25 for non-members.
P h o t o : N ad i a N i gg l i
Nadia Niggli’s “Murmuration” (rendering
top, detail above) is one of the six works
planned for Gleam.
For ticketing, visit brownpapertickets.com. For more
information, call 608-246-4550 or visit olbrich.org.
34
| August 27, 2015
American Players offers a searing ‘Othello’
By Michael Muckian
Contributing writer
There is nothing either good or bad, but
thinking makes it so, William Shakespeare
famously wrote in Hamlet. That same ethos
is even better demonstrated in his later work
Othello, where the Bard weaves a tale of evil
intent, with all the expected consequences.
American Players Theatre’s production of
Othello, which opened in mid-August at the
Spring Green troupe’s Up the Hill theater,
pulls no punches. With its racism both overt
and covert, Othello falls into the category
of Shakespeare‘s plays that are sometimes
difficult to watch, a list including the antiSemitic Merchant of Venice and The Taming
of the Shrew, rife with unbridled misogyny.
APT’s powerful version of Othello doesn’t
shy away from its distasteful elements. But
its dramatic accomplishments make it well
worth seeing.
The play opens as Othello the Moor
(Chiké Johnson), a general in the Venetian
army, secretly marries Desdemona (Laura
Rook), daughter of Brabantio (Brian Mani),
a senator with the Venetian state. The newlyweds are happy, but Brabantio does little
to disguise his disgust, literally throwing his
daughter at her new husband. 16th-century
Venice, it seems, is no liberal society.
Enter Iago (James Ridge), Othello’s
ensign, outraged that Othello has passed
Iago over to promote Cassio (Nate Burger)
as his lieutenant. Operating in partnership
with the reluctant Roderigo (Marcus Trus-
chinski), who secretly loves Desdemona,
Iago undertakes the machinations that will
ultimately lead to Othello’s undoing.
Director John Langs creates an air of
urgency in his production, underscored with
an undercurrent of despair. The senators,
noblemen and soldiers, including the Duke
of Venice (David Daniel), applaud Othello’s
military victories, and his minions are obsequious to a fault. But that doesn’t protect the
military hero from his ultimate fall.
In fact, Othello’s power and presumption
only contribute to his undoing, a theme
that carries over to many of the other lead
characters. Iago’s own vanity, colored by
his ambitions, drives his near-pathological
pursuit of Othello’s demise.
As Othello, Johnson manages his character with charm and bravado, but his descent
into distrust, despair and, ultimately, murder
under Iago’s influence seems a rather abrupt
shift. It’s a fault more attributable to tight
dramatic turns in the source material than
anything else. In the end, Othello is neither
hero nor villain, but rather a tragic pawn
in the power plays and social influences of
others.
Despite the play’s title, it is Iago who is
the dramatic driver of both the concept and
action behind the narrative, and Ridge is fully
capable of handling the role. His pursuit of
Othello is cool, calm and calculating, which
makes it all the more unnerving.
Director Langs draws only a modest distinction between Iago as the “hale fellow,
SALE
{30%-40%Off}
STOREWIDE
ONE WEEKEND ONLY!
sat & sun aug 29 & 30
2107 E. Capitol Dr. Shorewood, WI 53211
414-963-1657 • modgenmke.com
[email protected]
Tues-Sat 10am-6pm * Sun 10-4 * Closed Mon
P h o t o : C a r i s s a D i x on
James Ridge (left) and Chiké Johnson star as Iago and Othello in a powerful production
of the Shakespearean tragedy at American Players Theatre.
well met” and as the evil conspirator who
carefully strategizes Othello’s undoing as
if he were solving a puzzle or managing a
military campaign. It’s an interpretation that
suggests how close we all dance to the edge
of sanity and our own capability to operate in
a similar fashion.
Langs’ production also adds a variety of
stage business to scenes that could easily
have lapsed into mere dialogue. Othello and
Iago train with swords while discussing the
Moor’s concerns over his wife, first matching movements in warm-up exercises, and
then sparing as the conversation becomes
more direct. In addition to foreshadowing
the swordplay in Act II, the scene, along with
others, bring a much needed physicality to
the largely intellectual proceedings.
The cast, as a whole, is strong and draws
on several accomplished APT veterans in
smaller roles, including Colleen Madden
(actor Ridges’ wife in real life) as Iago’s wife
Emilia, to bring greater depth and breadth
to the ensemble. Scenic designer Andrew
Boyce’s minimalist set is spartan, ringed
by moats of water, and more than proves
adequate for Othello’s undoing.
APT tells an engaging tale in which the
powers of evil and the vanity of men combine
to create a true tragedy. Othello is certainly
one of the company’ strongest plays of the
season, warning us all that the power of persuasion in unbridled pursuit of ego can lead
to deadly consequences.
ON STAGE
American Players Theatre’s production of William Shakespeare’s Othello
runs through Oct. 3 on the APT campus,
5950 Golf Course Road, Spring Green.
For tickets, call 608-588-2361 or visit
americanplayers.org.
35
| August 27, 2015
Mojo Dojo’s improv aims to
build long-form community
By Matthew Reddin
Staff writer
More than anything else, Milwaukee’s
improv scene has been dominated by ComedySportz, the now-national troupe that
specializes in short-form improv — quick
“games” where performers riff on audience
suggestions in short bits before erasing
everything and starting from scratch.
But that approach to improv is not the only
one. In many cities, short-form companies
coexist with an alternative style: long-form
improv. Neither is inherently better than the
other, and many improvisers and comedians
do both. But Milwaukee only having a training center and performance space for shortform has skewed popular opinion here as to
what improv can be.
Enter Mojo Dojo Comedy: a brand-new
company that hopes to establish a tradition
of long-form improv in Milwaukee. Mojo
Dojo was initially conceived of by Jared
Stepp, a former Milwaukeean who returned
here from Austin in 2012 and found himself
missing the strong improv community that
he’d been a part of there. He enlisted the
help of the Tall Boys, a long-form improv
quartet he coaches and occasionally performs with, and the five of them formed the
organization shortly after.
“There’s no other place for it. There’s no
long-form outlet,” Stepp says. “It’s a different sampling than what (ComedySportz) is
doing.”
Stepp, who learned short-form at ComedySportz but grew to love long-form during
ON STAGE
Mojo Dojo will host shows Fridays at
8 p.m. and 10 p.m. at ComedySportz,
420 S. First St., Milwaukee. Tickets are
$10. For a full schedule, visit the company’s Facebook page.
his five years in Austin, characterizes the
latter as a one-act play created on the spot.
Long-form groups ask audiences for a single
suggestion at the start of the show, building
a narrative using one of many formats developed by groups across the country.
Stepp says the biggest distinction between
short-form and long-form is that long-form
focuses on telling a story over telling jokes.
“I don’t think long-form is focused on being
funny,” he says. “It’s more about creating
something together.”
That provides a challenge for performers, who don’t have the opportunity to wipe
the slate clean and start over if a moment
isn’t working. But the rewards are greater
too. Long-form rewards teamwork over individual skill, so practitioners can develop a
rapport that translates into better work. And
while attendees at a short-form show might
go home talking about a particular game or
two, long-form audience members receive
an entire story, built just for them.
In counterpoint to ComedySportz’s theme
of competition, Stepp says he’s framing
Mojo Dojo around martial arts motifs, defining long-form as a discipline practitioners
must train in. He currently plans to offer
five distinct classes, called “Ways,” where
students learn over eight weeks.
The two classes are the “Way of the
Crane,” designed for newbies with no knowledge of improv, and the “Way of the Tiger,”
tailored for actors and comedians who
already know a little but need to focus on the
details of long-form. Future installments will
include the Ways of the Mantis and Monkey,
which teach specific long-form formats, and
the Way of the Dragon, in which a group of
participants develop their own unique style
over the eight-week period.
The students Mojo Dojo develops in these
sessions will hopefully become members
of the talent pool available for the regular
SPONSORED BY:
Jacquart/McCarthy Tax LLC
MEDIA SPONSOR:
Join Us At the Biggest Monthly Social Event in the LGBT Community!
TGIF SEPTEMBER 11TH
JOIN US FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH 5:30-7:30PM
CAMP BAR SHOREWOOD • 4044 NORTH OAKLAND AVENUE
Join the Fun! Stop in to connect with friends & build a new social network.
FREE APPETIZERS AND DRINK SPECIALS!
MILWAUKEE LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER · mkeLGBT.org
P h o t o : Ta l l B oy s Imp r o v
Jared Stepp (not pictured) and the Tall Boys started Mojo Dojo as a way to develop a
long-form improv community not yet existing in Milwaukee.
series of shows booked through the end of
the year at ComedySportz.
Mojo Dojo has two shows scheduled for
every Friday through the end of 2015, with
premises as varied as “No Dice: Improv
DnD,” where comedians improvise a Dungeons and Dragons-esque adventure based
on suggestions; “The Oracle,” in which a
guest monologue inspires subsequent
scenes; and “Milwaukee Secrets,” in which
real secrets submitted by the audience and
performers are the basis for serious and
comedic enactments.
Stepp says the long-form company’s longterm goal is to find a permanent space for
performance and practice, but for 2015, their
focus is on the remaining ComedySportz
shows. In building up an improv community,
much like in improv itself, you need patience,
discipline and the instinct to always say
“yes” — one performance at a time.
Download our
FREE Whitening Guide:
http://smile.dewandental.com/teeth-whitening-ebook
WITBIER. DOPPELBOCK.
LAMBIC. SCHWARZBIER.
WE BREW A BEER
FOR EVERY TASTE.
36
| August 27, 2015
37
| August 27, 2015
Present Music celebrates
Mozart’s modern successors
By Kirstin Roble
Contributing writer
Milwaukee’s Present Music ensemble
helps kick off another year of fine arts,
with a season-opening concert that will
bring together the largest ensemble Present Music has ever hosted. It’ll also be
bringing together the company’s love for
chamber music’s classical roots and its
passion for contemporary works.
Deceptively titled Mozart?!, this concert
features only one work by the legendary
classical composer. But marketing director
Erin Woehlke says that’s intentional, as
artistic director Kevin Stalheim is hoping
to depict the parallels between Wolfgang
Amadeus and 20th-century composers
Luciano Berio and John Adams. Woehlke
says, “There’s more connections between
the three men than it would seem on the
initial surface and we plan to showcase
those similarities.”
Berio and Adams have explicitly cited
Mozart as an influence, with Adams going
so far to say that it was learning about
the Austrian composer that inspired him
to start composing as a young child. One
of the two Adams works included on the
concert, Grand Pianola Music, bears some
notable similarities to the concert’s single
Mozart work, his Gran Partita, including
the shared initial starting key of B flat
major.
Adams also has commented that his
Grand Pianola was “subconscious music,”
in which the listener was hearing a blur of
sounds. “This is much like what one would
hear crossing through a music school with
ON STAGE
the different styles played simultaneously.
Mozart is among those referenced in this
sonic blur,” explains Woehlke.
As a composer, Berio sought to encourage the virtuosity of performance, much
like Mozart did in his vocal and instrumental works. Berio’s compositions of this sort
are evident in a series of pieces, Sequenzas, which he composed as solo, virtuosic
works. This particular concert will feature
“Sequenza VIII,” a solo piece for violin.
This concert will be Present Music’s
biggest yet, featuring 23 musicians and
three vocalists. “Usually we perform with a
smaller group, but this is much different,”
Woehlke says. “This larger-scale event
sets the scene for a season that will indeed
be larger than life in many aspects.”
Among the other five Present Music
concerts this season are the Oct. 24 Carnival concert, featuring 2015 Grammy
winner Cory Smythe, and the March 20
Equinox: Light and Dark, another combination of classical and contemporary works
by composers including Antonio Vivaldi,
Andrew Normon, Judd Greenstein and
Robert Honstein.
Mozart?! brings together three great
men — a minimalist, an experimentalist
and a master — all for one night only.
“Regardless of your music taste, this is
the concert for you,” Woehlke says. “This
event proves that classical music is not
old or outdated, but is alive and thriving
in new music. It’s incredibly exciting, and
a reminder of the power of music to transcend time.”
Present Music’s Mozart?! concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 5 at the Helene
Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts, 2419 E. Kenwood Blvd., Milwaukee. Tickets
are $35, $25 or $15, with half-price discounts for students at presentmusic.org.
10
YEAR
S
Annual shows offering American made,
handcrafted furniture & accessories.
September 18-20
Muellner Building in Hart Park
Wauwatosa, WI
Fri. 4-8 • Sat. 10-6 • Sun. 10-5 ~ Adults: $10
• NEW dates! NEW venue!
• Free parking, door prizes
• New: Quilt show by WI quilters
• New: Speakers series
• Best in Show Awards
See show website for more details!
www.FineFurnishingsShows.com
Bring this ad for
VIP Half Price Admission
for up to 4 Adults
38
| August 27, 2015
Natasha Nicholson’s studio,
recreated at MMoCA, is a
work of art in itself
By Michael Muckian
Contributing writer
Natasha Nicholson stands in the middle
of “Studiolo,” an immense room filled with
hundreds of arranged artifacts and found
objects that replicates part of the Madison
artist’s home studio. She looks around to
make sure every piece of her collection is
where it needs to be — to foster the artistic
environment she considers critical to her
work.
Studiolo, and three other rooms replicated
from Nicholson’s studio on Madison’s east
side, comprise Natasha Nicholson: The Artist
in Her Museum, which opened Aug. 21 at the
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.
Nicholson is a collector of everything from
priceless antiquities to contemporary junk,
which she repurposes and combines to make
artistic pieces that reflect her view of art, life
and humankind. According to artist, critic
and historian Linda James, writing in the catalogue created for the exhibition, “(Nicholson’s) art is her studio is her home is her art.”
MMOCA director Stephan Flesichman
agrees. “In this rare occurrence, the spaces
that Natasha inhabits are themselves an artwork. It is this quality that we plan to capture
and recreate for museum visitors.”
Viewers to the exhibit stroll through four
separate rooms that replicate the artist’s
creative process. The journey starts in “The
Thinking Room.” It is here, Nicholson says,
that she gathers and sorts various objects,
looking for meaning and possible relationships with other found items. Some pieces
move on quickly to create an artistic work,
while others wait for their perfect pairing to
come along and join them.
“Strata,” the second room in the exhibition, is the place where Nicholson creates
art, sculpture and expressions using the
items she has gathered. It is the character
of the object, as well as what it means to the
artist, that determines its fate in a larger collaborative piece, she says.
“I love the patina and age of found objects
and the opportunity to take something common and make it more elegant,” Nicholson
says. “This changes the definition of how
viewers think of the object based on their
own observations, reactions and insights.”
Studiolo is the showcase of the exhibit and
home to Nicholson’s immense Cabinet of
Curiosities. Formerly on exhibit in 2000 at
UW-Madison’s Chazen Museum, the cabinet is a large standalone piece of furniture
with two wings and multiple individual cells.
In it, you’ll find everything from a tiny terra
cotta figure of a cat from ancient Egypt to a
much more contemporary display of taxidermy birds paired with a cut and polished Italian stone that looks very much like a painting
of a western mesa under a storm-heavy sky.
For Nicholson, it’s about the collection and
what it may say to the viewers. She has never
titled her works until now, she says, allowing
viewers to draw their own conclusions.
“I am just a temporary caretaker of all
these items; they belonged to someone else
before I acquired them and will go to someone else after I am gone,” Nicholson says. “I
think all good collectors understand this.”
The fourth room, the Bead Room, houses
the artist’s extensive collection of beads,
ethnic jewelry and antique fabrics, often
joined to other found objects in her various
compositions. They are another important
set of facets to her vast collection, captured
within the squares and containers of the
cabinet, the frames and the very rooms
themselves.
By her own admission, Nicholson is one of
those rare artists who chooses to think inside
the box to visualize, frame and better understand and isolate the objects in her compositions. The discipline of the square, the frame
and the bell jar help capture and display the
various elements of her compositions, creating a confined context that allows each to
speak with a clearer voice, one more in tune
with the artistic statement being made.
“I’m a person of great curiosity and wonder,” Nicholson says. “The relationship
between the cultures, genres, time periods
and other aspects of the pieces tie works
together in new ways that speak to those
viewing the art.”
The exhibition’s signature piece, “Silent
Buddha” (2014), encapsulates the elements
of Nicholson’s artistic ethos.
Nicholson received the 6-inch wooden figure unexpectedly from a friend. It had been
damaged and had its face chewed off by the
previous owner’s dog, but she loved the statute too much to simply discard it.
The artist took the Buddha and wrapped
its head in red thread harvested from a 19thcentury piece of fabric. The statue was then
mounted on a pedestal and enclosed in a box
of light aspen wood, whose clean, modern
lines stand in strict contrast to the small
Buddha’s size, color and texture.
By adapting the Buddha to a more contemporary visual setting, she has created
new meaning for the previously damaged
artwork, one she hopes that viewers of the
exhibit will be able to embrace.
“Single objects have their own meaning,
but what I do well is put two or three things
together that may say something to the
viewer” Nicholson says. “It’s a process of
sharing, and that’s very important to me.”
ON DISPLAY
Natasha Nicholson: The Artist in Her
Museum runs through Nov. 8 at the
Madison Museum of Contemporary
Art, 227 State St., Madison. For more
information, call 608-257-0158 or
visit mmoca.org.
P h o t o s : M ad i s on M u s e u m o f C on t e mpo r a r y A r t
The Artist in Her Museum recreates Natasha Nicholson’s studio with various eclectic
rooms. Visitors’ journeys begin in “The Thinking Room” (top), packed with items not yet
partnered. They then travel to “Strata,” where Nicholson creates work, and “Studiolo”
(bottom), where some of that work is prominently displayed.
| August 27, 2015
RedLine Milwaukee’s diverse ‘Timeline’
By Kat Minerath
Contributing writer
From across the room, Jody Emery’s “Universe” catches light like a cosmos of stars
twinkling in the night. Enamel paint glistens
in a cloudy crush of three-dimensional texture that builds from the artwork’s surface.
Approach more closely and see that this
murky constellation is built from metal detritus of various chains, tool bits and other
tough implements.
It is an imaginative recasting and one of
the highlights in the exhibition Timeline, on
view at RedLine Milwaukee.
RedLine meets the needs of artists seeking workshop space and exhibition opportunities with the added bonus of not having to
create in isolation. It is home to 11 artists-inresidence, some of whom are breaking out
in their career after the relative safety of
academia and art degrees. Others have been
practicing independently and find RedLine
to be a home for artistic incubation.
Many of the show’s strongest pieces
reveal an innovative use of materials. Nina
Ghanbarzadeh performs artistic alchemy
with a disheveled web of dripping, dark
lines of dried acrylic paint in “A true human
is my desire.” It is sparse, darkly romantic,
elegantly composed and hangs together by
the merest thread in places. It is perhaps an
apt metaphor for the human condition.
Not all is so serious, however. Miles Buss’
paintings are delightful fun.
With a deadpan touch, his compositions
seem charmingly obvious at first. In one,
he paints bold, flat, naive trees that could
appear on the set of a children’s play. This
is a ruse to get us to look more closely at
things like the shadow of a tree that breaks
sharply when it meets the sky, as though it
is cast onto a wall instead of infinite space.
This touch of René Magritte-styled
humor also is found in the collages of Carly
Huibregtse. She employs cut-out images of
foodstuffs and figures, floating them in glass
frames or against colorful backgrounds. The
disembodied delectables are part of a series
called I’m Not a Foodie, I Just Eat a Lot.
Collage is popular in this exhibition.
Jaime Bilgo Bruchman brings a highly lyrical
approach to her multilayered compositions.
Light colors, decorations and diaphanous
fabrics create something like undersea kingdoms or lush forest beds.
Natalie Schmitting uses bits of paper to
make collages that similarly suggest a certain environment, but they seem preliminary
to her monumental painting, “Reinstate.”
The collages are hard-edged and firm in
their contours. Blown up to a large scale
and articulated in acrylic and oil pastel, the
painting offers more nuanced layers through
its piles of slashing brushwork.
In this show, big paintings are well represented and tend to favor expressionistic
tendencies. Luke Farley warms up with a
number of ink drawings, gone over with a
shimmering patina of shellac. He takes his
gestural sensations to monumental proportions, and what might originate as representational objects like boats are freely diverted
in favor of freeform mark making.
Skully Gustafson
is abstract in his
approach, but more
exuberant in color
and insistent in the
demarcation of contour lines. Photographs of the artist
in various costumes
of lingerie and
pinup looks relate
to vignettes in the
paintings, with pairings that become an
expression of character in visual form.
Katie Ryan’s paintings form a series
referencing particular addresses. The
pieces are hung on
the wall and painted
on a curtain around a
cushy gold armchair,
P h o t o : K at M i n e r at h
as though a seat for Miles Buss’ deliberately naive paintings are charming fun and
reminiscences
of just one of the 11 collections of work in Timeline.
places once known.
Something that
may seem tiny and
precious like a book is also expanded into ests in a show that celebrates the diverse
sizable proportions. Cynthia Brinich-Lan- practices within these walls.
Timeline runs through Oct. 3 at 1422 N.
glois’s “Book of Hours: Tipi Circle” expands
several feet in accordion folds. The land- Fourth St., Milwaukee. Admission is free.
scape drawings and evocative text docu- Visit redlinemke.org for more details.
ment the passage of a day, mirroring the
traditions of prayer and attention to spiritual
time.
Sue Lawton uses her science-fiction novel
The Rift for a work in progress. Intricate
fantasy illustrations are shown, along with
an audio recording of the story as part of the
gallery installation.
Timeline as an exhibition covers a lot of
ground — fitting, considering RedLine’s purpose as both an artistic playground and a
serious place to get work done. These 11 artists present a broad range of stylistic inter-
39
40
| August 27, 2015
Mika stops hiding
with ‘No Place in Heaven’
By Jan Janssen
The Interview Feed
Mika is one of pop music’s most uniquely
talented artists. The Anglo-Lebanese singer
burst into the spotlight with his superb debut
album, Life in Cartoon Motion, which has sold
nearly 6 million copies since its release in
2007.
Since then, he has continued to demonstrate the gift for sweet melody and catchy
hooks that has become his trademark, along
with a voice that evokes the spirit and register of Elton John, Freddie Mercury and David
Bowie.
His new album, No Place in Heaven, is
perhaps the 31-year-old singer/songwriter’s
most potent and inspired artistic achievement yet. Evoking vintage pop and sprinkled
with emotionally charged love songs, No
Place in Heaven is the result of a two-year
period of intense dedication. The album has
in part been conceived as an act of personal
liberation for the artist, who in recent years
has admitted the difficulty of coming out and
being open about his sexuality, now saying,
“I no longer want to hide.”
Of course, when you’re a mega-selling
pop idol like Mika, it is practically impossible to live beneath the radar. Today, the
tall, lean singer best known for songs like
“Grace Kelly,” “Relax, Take it Easy,” “We Are
Golden” and “Elle me dit” (“She Tells Me,”
recorded in English as “Emily”), is embracing
life more fully than ever and his new album is
conceived in part as a more intimate portrait
of his life.
“Until three years ago I was very resistant
to revealing myself: on TV, in (magazine and
print) interviews. Then I started to do the
opposite. I stopped trying to protect me, to
be afraid to show my inner life. I won the
battle!,” Mika says. “I began talking about
myself, explaining who I am, as if I had found
a sort of candor in my way of being and
making music. I also decided to stop putting
distance between me and my songs. This
album, No Place in Heaven, is my diary.”
Born in Beirut, Mika was barely a year old
when in 1984 he and his family were forced
to flee the country in order to escape the
Lebanese Civil War. Mika lived first in France
and then, from the age of 9 onward, he grew
up in England. Growing up, he dealt with the
challenges of being dyslexic and also suffered from intense bullying.
A few years ago, Mika opened up about
being gay and having to overcome the stigma that comes from a Middle East culture on
his father’s side: “I was scared of not being
accepted by my family. No one in my family
is gay. No one in my extended family is gay. It
was a very foreign, alien thing. You’re scared
of being judged. Then you realize there is
nothing to be afraid of if you are happy. I fell
in love. I lost love. I found it again. I reached
a point where I was like, ‘You know what, I’ve
lived my life and I’ve never pretended to be
anyone else.’”
Mika, is this the most personal album of
your career?
This album is much more intimate and
personal. There are no metaphors or turns
of phrase to mask my feelings. Having come
from a Middle East culture, I felt weighed
down with a sense of shame for a long time,
and this album is a way of escaping that
paranoia.
This is an album that speaks of freedom,
of becoming an adult — the person we want
to become is always more interesting than
who we are. But I don’t want to be a role
model, a model for others, that’s something
that scares me. I write songs that are part of
the process of living and expressing my life.
Why did you choose this particular, rather sad title for the album?
The Ultimate
Veritas Spa Salon
Where You’re Treated Like Royalty
Mention This Ad and
Receive 50% Off
Xtreme Eyelashes or 50% Off an Infinity
Sun Custom Airbrush Tan with Allison Taylor!
View our full service menu at UltimateVeritasSpa.com
5713 Monona Drive • Monona, WI 53716 • 608.222.4174
P h o t o : R e p u b l i c / C a s ab l anca R e co r d s
Mika’s newest album, No Place in Heaven, is an act of personal liberation for the pop
artist, who is becoming increasingly open about his sexuality.
The title is not sad. On the contrary, it’s
joyful. If I find place in heaven, that’s fine,
otherwise there’s no problem — I won’t go
there at any price. This goes against the culture in which I grew up, though. My Lebanese
side includes a healthy dose of paranoia in
dealing with personal issues.
Now I feel I’ve finally been able to knock
down the wall, to break out of that shell. Now
I understand that the real shame is to keep
inside certain things. Years ago when I would
give interviews I would avoid talking about
serious personal things, I kept everything at
a distance. Now it’s my time to free my soul.
The title also kind of makes you wonder
why a guy who is 31 can say that there’s no
place in heaven for him. It’s a liberating title
and it’s all about shaking off the concept of
shame and wrestling with the concept of living in the moment more.
Is there an overriding emotional theme to
your music?
MIKA next page
MIKA from prior page
Joy! But in my songs there is always a
conflict between the immediacy of melody
and very blunt words that reek of truth. The
album No Place in Heaven is perhaps difficult
to understand immediately. You discover
the meaning by listening to it several times,
reading the lyrics. I talk about love, but
also about suffering, ecstasy and violence. A
mix of conflicting feelings, which makes my
music emotionally true.
In one song, for example, I wonder if there
is a love story that is truly full of joy. But
maybe that doesn’t exist — there. Maybe it
you can only find that at Disneyland where a
romantic date is totally happy. Maybe there
will be 10 fantastic minutes, 40 unforgettable, but then 20 horrible minutes. But we
seem to be programmed to remember only
the good things.
You wrote this album while living in California?
Yes, in Laurel Canyon (Los Angeles). My
inspirations are first and foremost Elton
John, Billy Joel, and the golden age of pop
songwriters from the ‘70s. I first started
working in a huge, very modern studio in
Los Angeles, but I ran away after a week,
because it wasn’t the place where I wanted
to write an album. So I went to the Apple
store, bought a computer, bought a piano,
called my musicians and we moved into a
1950s era house in L.A. But what I didn’t
know was that Orlando Bloom had been
living in that house and there were always
tourists and fans standing outside waiting
for him! But I stayed there for three months
and it was very beautiful and intense.
What was the experience like?
I was kind of inspired by the story of how
Elton John composed his Yellow Brick Road
album at a place called The Castle in France,
where he would compose in the morning
and record in the afternoon. The house in
Los Angeles was like a little factory. We
would record and write in the living room,
different musicians would come in and out,
some would be waiting in the garden. It was
a very creative atmosphere. I was constantly
writing. During those three months, I maybe
left the house four or five times. I wanted to
write a record that felt like it came out of a
bubble.
Your new album has a very distinct
French chanson influence to it.
I spent a lot of time growing up in Paris and
my first musical education came through
the French songs of Gainsbourg, Françoise
Hardy, Barbara Moustaki, Rita Mitsouko, etc.
I’m not afraid of melody — it’s part of my
training. I had wanted to sing in French for a
long, long time, which I finally did on my previous album, but I knew I could not write in
French myself, because in my head I think in
English. So I had to wait until I met Doriand, a
lyricist who interprets my ideas and can put
that into French.
“All She Wants” seems to be a very
autobiographical song? Is it about your own
mother?
Of course. It’s about a mother who dreams
that her son will get married, find a good job,
have a family and lead a traditional kind of
life. But she always believed in me and stood
by me even if though she knew I wasn’t going
to be that kind of son. Today my mother
works with me (as his stylist) and we are
very close. My mom does my clothes for all
my shows and she’s become a gypsy without
realizing it!
But I am convinced that if I were a more
“normal” son, with a beautiful wife and many
children, it would be better for her. I think
she’s 90 percent happy with who I am, but
inside her there will always be that 10 percent of desire for normality, which I can’t
give her. That’s part of the inspiration for
the song, because even though I have a very
good relationship with my mother, a singer/
songwriter always finds inspiration in the
“grey” area, in the darker side of reality.
How would you describe your childhood
and having to move from one country to
another with your family?
It was difficult for me. I felt like an outsider wherever we went. It was like being
| August 27, 2015
shipwrecked. Twice we lost everything and I
grew up knowing what it’s like having money
and then not having any money at all. Now
I can appreciate that this kind of economic
instability was a gift from God. Even though
my family didn’t have an easy or normal
life, it was full of love. And love is the most
important thing.
What was your life like going to school
in France?
As a child I hated school, because I could
not read and write and the French school
system was rather cruel. When we went
to live in England and I started attending a
school in London, I was told: “You’re stupid,
you’re dyslexic.” It was the first time I had
experienced that kind of taunting. At my
French school we all wore uniforms, but
in England that wasn’t required. I started
to wear my own clothes. I would show up
at school wearing bow ties and shirts with
polka dots and that’s when I started to have
a lot of problems.
How did you deal with the bullying?
It made me want to succeed and prove
myself. Bullying is a way of punishing people
for being different and to try to make everyone be the same and be less special. My
mother always gave me a lot of encouragement. She told me that you only need to
have one great talent or skill and that will
overcome all the other disadvantages that I
had because of my dyslexia. She understood
that my being different and having a very
creative side was my gift to succeed in life.
41
42
| August 27, 2015
Third time charms again for Testa Rosa
By Bill Lamb
Contributing writer
“Pretty” is not an adjective that tends
to apply to the Milwaukee music scene,
but it’s one that has been leveled at — and
embraced by — pop rock band Testa Rosa
more than once. Betty Blexud-Strigens and
Damian Strigens, the couple who lead the
band, haven’t lost any of that shine as they
gear up for the release of their third album.
But the appropriately titled Testa Rosa III is
tempered by a deeper, darker and denser
sound than Testa Rosa has dabbled with in
the past.
With Blexud-Strigens singing lead and
serving as the group’s primary songwriter
and Strigens playing lead guitar and producing instrumental arrangements in studio,
Testa Rosa released their self-titled debut in
2007 to stellar reviews. Their 2011 follow-up,
Testa Rosa II, was noted for expanding the
group’s sound, keeping the pop catchy while
providing a more varied listening experience.
Blexud-Strigens’ striking voice has always
reminded me of Karen Carpenter, a beautiful
instrument infused with darker undertones.
It’s a comparison she agrees with, although
she would add the voices of Chrissie Hynde
of the Pretenders and ABBA’s Frida Lyngstad.
Blexud-Strigens says the Carpenters’ songs
were the first she and her sister sang along
with while growing up, and while she was
writing III, she was “engulfed” in Little Girl
Blue, a biography of Karen Carpenter.
III has a more local influence as well. Blexud-Strigens was chosen in 2014 to curate
Alverno Presents’ Smith Uncovered show, a
celebration of punk icon Patti Smith featuring re-interpretations of her greatest songs
by local musicians.
Testa Rosa performed the song “Frederick” from Patti Smith’s 1979 album Wave and
Blexud-Strigens found herself increasingly
influenced by the artist’s work. She says two
songs on III owe their origins to Smith Uncovered. One, “Golden Boat,” is more indirect,
inspired by the poem “The Drunken Boat”
by Arthur Rimbaud, who heavily influenced
Smith’s work.
The other, “The Summer of We Three,” is
a reference to the Smith song “We Three.”
Blexud-Strigens says, “I was trying to be
more poetic and dark and I was thinking of
Patti a lot when I wrote it.”
The richer, darker arrangements on III can
be attributed to Strigens’ influence. He says
he likes the sound “a little more aggressive.”
By contrast, Blexud-Strigens’ arrangements
tend to be “more simple pop.”
Strigens also is quick to point out the other
musicians essential to III. Keyboardist Nick
Berg, who also plays with Strigens in Americana band Conrad Plymouth, has joined
Testa Rosa for III, adding atmospheric synth
washes and studio engineering skills. Among
other musicians who play on the album are
cello player Janet Schiff and Milwaukee’s
Ben Lester, currently touring with Tallest
Man on Earth
on pedal steel.
At heart,
Testa Rosa
remains distinctively
a
Wisconsin band, as
reflected in
local references in at least
three of the
songs on the
new album.
The song “Window Breaker” is about
Mary Sweeney, a woman immortalized in
the book and film Wisconsin Death Trip, who
distinguished herself through, and was frequently jailed for, her personal “sport” of
breaking windows. The song “Irvine” grew
out of Blexud-Strigens’ childhood memories of Chippewa Falls’ Irvine Park before
morphing into a song about California’s city
of Irvine. Finally, “Bad Wolf,” the single the
band released last year and the track that
kicks off the album, gives an impressionistic
view of polarizing Wisconsin governor Scott
Walker.
One of the most difficult questions for
the couple to answer was a simple one: How
would you describe the sound of Testa Rosa?
The phrase that finally seemed the most
evocative was Blexud-Strigens’: “AM pop
radio playing in some kind of urban ruin.”
P h o t o : K at Sc h l e i c h e r
Milwaukee band Testa Rosa released its
third album on Aug. 21.
If you have fond memories of the music
of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, the “golden
age of studio recording,” you will find much
to like in the music of Testa Rosa. However,
fans of contemporary alternative rock should
also find themselves enthralled by the rich
textures of the band’s sound on III.
ON STAGE
Testa Rosa will celebrate Testa Rosa III
at an album release party Aug. 29 at 9
p.m. at Shank Hall, 1434 N. Farwell Ave.
Tickets are $10. Visit shankhall.com to
order.
| August 27, 2015
Music reviews
The Sets List
43
Wilco :: ‘Star Wars’
Meat Puppets
8:30 p.m. Aug. 28 at Club Garibaldi, Milwaukee. $13.
clubgaribaldi.com.
Is there a better way to celebrate the end of
summer than by listening to some “face-melting”
rock ’n’ roll by the Meat Puppets? Better be safe
and pop into Club Garibaldi for this cowpunk pioneer’s first appearance at the venue in two years.
The group — best known for an appearance with
Nirvana on MTV Unplugged shortly before Kurt
Cobain’s death, but a reputable force in their own
right — has a history of rocking the venue hard,
and their 2015 appearance should be no different.
Ever wondered what Wilco would sound like if they simply
walked into the studio and let the tape roll? Now you can
find out, thanks to their new album
Star Wars, a self-released, superDIY record that sounds even better than many of the band’s more
intricately constructed past works.
In the midst of all of the fuzzy guitar and avant-pop rhythms, there
is an elegant grace that keeps you
listening. “You Satellite” is one of
the most beautiful tracks Wilco has
ever written, and the buzzing flood
of guitars on top of drums that chaotically roll off the rails by the end makes the song even more
striking. While the album has more introspective moments, it is
the rollicking sound of noisy tracks like “Random Name Generator” and “Pickled Ginger” that will stick in your mind.
Rob Thomas :: ‘The Great Unknown’
Dirty Heads
8:30 p.m. Sept. 1 at the Barrymore Theatre, Madison. $27.
barrymorelive.com.
Dirty Heads has been an established reggae rock band for several
years, but they took a big shift with their 2014 album Sound of Change,
introducing more alternative rock and hip-hop influences than ever
before. It paid off — their lead single, “My Sweet Summer,” picked up
heavy rotation on indie and mainstream stations alike, only growing in
popularity as summer turned to fall and listeners grabbed onto whatever
reminders of warmth they could. At the Barrymore, they’ll prove they’re
more than just a catchy single. Dutch funk rock band Chef’Special opens.
Jeremy Messersmith
TBA Sept. 8 in Oshkosh and Sept. 9 in Milwaukee. $20.
jeremymessersmith.com.
There’s small, intimate concerts, and then there’s Jeremy Messersmith’s Supper Club tour. The indie pop artist from Minneapolis is traveling around the country, playing a series of musical potluck shows at
random homes. He has two Wisconsin gigs coming up, in Oshkosh and
Milwaukee, and that’s all we can tell you about them. Get tickets, and you
get the host’s address and other important details. What happens next?
That’s up to you.
9 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Orpheum Theatre, Madison. $25,
$30 day-of-show. madisonorpheum.com.
On their last two records, LP3 and LP4, electronica
duo Ratatat (Mike Stroud and Evan Mast) got experimental, trying out different genres, instruments and
motifs. Magnifique, their first album in half a decade,
gets back to their roots: guitar driven, synth-supported electronic rock. It’s been wildly enjoyed by fans of
the band in live performance, so this Orpheum show
comes with high expectations.
Rufus Wainwright
8 p.m. Sept. 12 at the Marcus Center, Milwaukee.
$17 to $107. mso.org.
Considered one of the greatest vocalists and
songwriters performing today, Rufus Wainwright
vacillates between contemporary and classical
notions of pop music with an enviable ease. So
it makes sense that he’d want to perform an
evening of his best work with the Milwaukee
Symphony Orchestra. The Marcus Center may
not be the Pabst Theater (where he recorded his
live album Milwaukee at Last!!!), but Wainwright
loves the city whatever the venue.
P h o t o s : J a i m e B u t l e r , Pa r ad i gm , S e an J am e s
Ratatat
It’s been six years since we last heard solo work from Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas, and he’s lightened up
considerably since Cradlesong. This
new album is more akin to Thomas’
catchy debut, kicking off with the
R&B-inflected “I Think We’d Feel
Good Together” and segueing into
uptempo lead single “Trust You.”
There are big ballads like “Paper
Dolls” and “Pieces,” but the danceable beat of “Things You Said” is
more memorable. Six years is a long
time to be away, but hopefully pop
radio will give this record a chance.
Carly Rae Jepsen :: ‘E-MO-TION’
The hazard in a smash hit single as big as “Call Me Maybe”
is it tends to overshadow everything an artist does afterward. Carly Rae Jepson has struggled since 2012 to find a compelling follow-up to her international
debut Kiss, and it’s masked one of
the stronger talents in the mainstream pop universe. E-MO-TION
could change that. Jepsen says she
looked to Cyndi Lauper and Robyn
for inspiration, and it shows on the
album, infused with the simultaneous bursts of joy and creeping melancholy that distinguishes both artists’ best work. Kiss was a quality contemporary pop statement.
E-MO-TION speaks even louder.
Beach House :: ‘Depression Cherry’
Beach House, the duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally,
has emerged as a key architect of what is known as dream pop.
It is a sound in which vocals and
melodies seem to emerge out of a
soothing electronic haze. It has carried Beach House to nearly universal
critical acclaim and a top 10-charting album, Bloom, in 2012. Depression Cherry is the first release since,
and it seems a bit like a letdown.
The songs on Depression Cherry aim
to go to a somewhat darker place,
but too often they seem to be lost
in the mist. The single “Sparks” is
more distinctive with a somewhat rougher sound, but much of
the rest of the album is so comforting that the attention of the
listener can frequently waver.
— Bill Lamb
44
| August 27, 2015
Get schooled on UW-Madison traditions
By Jay Rath
Contributing writer
Students are returning to campus and
football fans are returning to bleachers.
University of Wisconsin-Madison classes
begin Sept. 2 and the first home game is
Sept. 12.
If a great university has great traditions, then UW-Madison must be great,
indeed. And you’d better know the traditions, whether attending the university or
enjoying a Badger game.
After all, “Without an identifiable
tradition, a university could become an
emberless place, perhaps a soulless battleground,” wrote Robert Gard, the late folklorist and UW historian.
Incidentally, the first home game will
be against Miami University, of Oxford,
Ohio. Don’t worry, that’s not a tradition.
But these are:
Bucky Badger — The tradition most
associated with UW-Madison is actually
one of its most recent. The Bucky we know
today was designed in 1940 by Art Evans,
a California commercial artist. Before that,
a live badger sometimes served as mascot.
Believe it or not, so did Paul Bunyan.
Cheerleaders — Today they build pyramids and catch each other in basket tosses, but cheerleading started as only that
— cheering. The first cheerleader, Johnny
Campbell, led the first cheer on Nov. 2,
1898, at a University of Minnesota football
game. It spread to the UW soon afterward.
For decades, only men were allowed. The
scales tipped in women’s favor during
the 1920s, because so few other athletic
activities were open to them.
Homecoming — No, it
hasn’t been around forever.
The first UW homecoming
was in 1911. It included
speeches and, during
halftime, an alumni
football game. The
UW had been playing
intercollegiate
football for only 22
years. In 1912, and
at every homecoming game since, law
school seniors have
charged the southern
goalpost, where they try
to throw their canes up
and over. Students making the catch, tradition goes,
will win their first cases. This
year’s homecoming game, Oct. 17,
will be played against Purdue.
The Fifth Quarter — If you leave early,
you’ll miss what some fans think is the
best part of the game. In the 1970s, Madison’s football team wasn’t exactly strong.
To boost morale, the marching band added
a post-game performance. It built and
built, becoming wilder and wilder, with
stunts and choreography. By the time the
press had dubbed it the Fifth Quarter, it
was an institution.
The Band — The UW School of Music
actually hosts several bands, but it’s the
marching band fans know best. It was
formed during the 1885–86 school year.
It performed with the University Military
Battalion, at prom and at the “Joint Debate
of the University.” In 1894 the band began
playing at the newfangled football games
sweeping the country. Today Mike Leckrone, director of bands, marches more than
300 students and has become a tradition
himself, enjoying iconic status. He joined
the UW in 1969, and developed the group’s
distinctive pointed-foot marching style, as
well as designing its uniforms. As for what
the band plays:
“Varsity” — The somber song that
brings a lump to alumni throats was originally a hymn written by Charles Gounod
(1818–1893), a French composer primarily known for opera. He also wrote the
well-known setting for “Ave Maria.”
In 1908, UW music instructor
Henry Dyke Sleeper wrote new
words and a new arrangement
for what he named “Varsity
Toast.” The arm-wave at its
close was added in 1934 by
band director Ray Dvorak.
“If You Want to Be a
Badger” — Like “Varsity,”
it originally had another
life. In 1919, UW professor Julian Olson wrote the
lyrics for “The Badger Ballad.” Band director Charles
Mills composed a peppy
melody for the song, which
wasn’t intended for students or
sports, but for an alumni dinner.
“You’ve Said It All” — Older Milwaukee readers will recall when the
city was home not only to Miller but to
Schlitz, Pabst and Blatz breweries — and
the intense rivalry with Anheuser-Busch’s
Budweiser, brewed in St. Louis. So it’s the
peak of irony that Bud’s 1970 advertising
jingle was made into the UW’s favorite brag: “When you’ve said Wi-scon-sin,
you’ve said it all!” Steve Karmen wrote the
original.
“On, Wisconsin!” — If it doesn’t have
the comma and exclamation point, it’s
not the song’s actual title. It was written
in 1909 by W.T. Purdy and Carl Beck for a
University of Minnesota song competition.
They gave it to the UW, instead. It’s also
our official state song. After singing it at
the game, why not head to:
The Union Terrace — The students’
Memorial Union was completed in 1928.
Campus supervising architect Arthur
Peabody wanted it to resemble “a Venetian pleasure palace,” but he left its most
pleasing feature to his daughter, Charlotte. A budding landscape architect, she
designed the terrace, “the living room
of the university,” on the shores of Lake
Mendota.
Astro Logic
WiG
CLASSIFIEDS
SALES &
SERVICES
AUTOMOTIVe
Donate your car to Veterans today. Fast - FREE pick up.
100% tax deductible. Call 1-800709-0542.
TOP CASH FOR CARS, Any Car/
Truck, Running or Not. Call for
INSTANT offer: 1-800-454-6951.
BIKES
BIKE SALE: All in stock models
marked down 100 dollars or
more. Save an extra 5% on cash
sales. Bigfoot Bike and Skate,
350 E. Ward St., Milwaukee, WI
53207(PH:414-332-3479).
DISH TV Starting at $19.99/month
Business Services
(for 12 mos.) SAVE! Regular Price
$34.99 Ask About FREE SAME
DAY Installation! CALL Now! 877648-0096.
for LESS! Starting $19.99/month
(for 12 months.) PLUS Bundle &
SAVE (Fast Internet for $15 more/
month.) CALL Now! 1-800-6154064.
Make a Connection. Real
People, Flirty Chat. Meet singles
right now! Call LiveLinks. Try it
FREE. Call NOW: 1-888-9099905 18+.
AVIATION Grads work with
JetBlue, Boeing, Delta and othersstart here with hands on training
for FAA certification. Financial aid
if qualified. Call Aviation Institute
of Maintenance 866-453-6204.
VIAGRA 100mg, CIALIS 20mg.
40 tabs +10 FREE, $99 includes
FREE SHIPPING. 1-888-836-0780
Miscellaneous
or Metro-Meds.net.
Lowest Rates For Everyone
Auto-Home-Renters. Local agents,
personal service. We shop our 40
A-rated carriers for you. The Insurance Office FREE Quotes - Call
now 414-302-0559.
Herndon’s Gift Shop Your
first choice in quality online shopping! herndon’sgiftshop.com Customer Service M-F 6-8 PM 256665-3671.
CASH FOR CARS, Any Make or
Model! Free Towing. Sell it TODAY.
Instant offer: 1-800-864-5784.
Dish Network - Get MORE
construct in 1931 and has never
looked better. One bdrm avail Oct.
1, $755 Heat, water, internet, cable
included. Onsite manager Call:
608-778-6187 http://www.eastmore.com.
918 N 29th St. Immaculate single
home. Side drive, 2 car garage
Nice yard. Quiet block w/ stately
homes. 6 rms, 2 bdrms, 1+ baths.
Updated Kit all appliances. Washer/dryer included. Security system.
lease. No Animals. Nonsmoker.
Rent $900. Call Don @ 414-3884368.
with Dr. Sterling Asterix
I’m legally obligated* to tell you this week that
Saturn, the arbiter of discipline both celestial and
terrestrial, has finally popped out of its retrograde
stint in debaucherous Scorpio and is back where
it belongs in the fancy centaur sign, so get back
to work, etc. But sometimes it’s exhausting having
to be the bearer of harsh cosmic truths based on
centuries-old teachings and definitely not whatA l l s i gn s :
J an . 1 – D e c . 3 1
ever I google two days before this column is due.
So I’m rejecting my responsibilities this week,
and you should too, The universe is bending its will to make you stop
lazing about and get into that back-to-school spirit, but forget the
universe. Stay lazy and let the consequences build up. That’ll make
my column next time easier too.
*We checked with our lawyers. WiG has no legal obligations re: Dr. Asterix but nice try.
DISH TV Starting at $19.99/month
(for 12 mos.) SAVE! Regular Price
$34.99 Ask About FREE SAME
DAY Installation! CALL Now! 877477-9659.
Wanted to Buy
CASH PAID- up to $25/Box
for unexpired, sealed DIABETIC TEST STRIPS. 1-DAYPAYMENT.1-800-371-1136.
Wants to purchase minerals and other oil and gas
interests. Send details to P.O. Box
13557 Denver, CO 80201.
HEalth and Fitness
VIAGRA 100MG and CIALIS
20mg! 50 Pills $99.00 FREE Shipping! 100% guaranteed. CALL
NOW! 1-866-312-6061.
45
| August 27, 2015
REAL ESTATE
& RENTALS
Apartments for Rent
Shorewood 1920s Tudor
Revival Bldg - 1420-8 E. Capitol Dr. Large elegant apt. homes
featuring well maintained vintage
details such as stucco walls,
HWFs, built-is and ornate pillars.
2 bdrms avail ASAP $960 - $995/
mo. Heat, water, internet, cable
included. Showing by appt: 414214-0212. eastmore.com.
Downtown 1950s Art Deco
High Rise 1029 E. Knapp St. Walking distance to lake & Cathedral
Square. 1 bdrms avail ASAP. $700
- $995 cable & internet incl. City
and lake views. Premium apts.
include granite, stainless steel and
Pergo flooring. Showings by appt:
414-759-1154 eastmore.com.
Heart of Shorewood - 4480
N Oakland Ave. Located across
the street from Colectivo. Beautiful
building with wood floors that was
WANTED
OLD JAPANESE
MOTORCYCLES
KAWASAKI-- Z1-900(1972-75),
KZ900, KZ1000(1976-1982), Z1R,
KZ1000MK2(1979,80), W1-650,
H1-500(1969-72), H2-750(1972-1975),
S1-250, S2-350, S3-400, KH250,
KH400, SUZUKI--GS400, GT380,
HONDA--CB750K(1969-1976),
CBX1000(1979,80)
$$ CASH $$
1-800-772-1142
1-310-721-0726
[email protected]
CA$H
FOR
CARS
All Cars/Trucks Wanted!
Running or Not!
Damaged/Wrecked...OK!
FREE Pick-Up and Towing!
Sell your car in 60 seconds!
CALL NOW FOR A
FREE GUARANTEED
OFFER!
1-888-524-9668
www.cashforcars.com
AIRLINE
CAREERS
Get FAA approved maintenance training at campuses
coast to coast. Job placement assistance.
Financial Aid for qualifying students. Military friendly.
Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance
800-481-7894
46
| August 27, 2015
TECH GADGETS
ACROSS
1. Had, with thou
6. Exclamation of disgust
9. Fit of shivering
13. American writer Jong
14. Beauty treatment site
15. “No guts, no ____”
16. ____ in, for a doctor
17. “C’____ la vie!”
18. *A portable one is great
for camping
19. eBay participant
21. *Power provider
23. *A smart one syncs
everything you write
24. *Pretty hot and tempting,
in a text
25. Public health org.
28. Bluish green
30. ____ talk
35. ZZ Top hit
37. Lady Gaga’s 2010 dress
material
39. Lowest Hindu caste
40. Tons
41. “Walk the Dog” device,
pl.
43. Civil wrong
44. Done to some
documents
46. Cheers regular
47. The Iliad, e.g.
48. Interruption in continuity
50. Medieval domain
52. Emerald ____ borer
53. Naive, alt. spelling
55. Hat
57. *Bose, e.g.
61. Iron Man’s robotic
nemesis
64. Like a ballerina
65. Unit of electric current
67. Scape goat’s due
69. ____circle
70. Likewise
71. More ill
72. No I in this
73. Long, long time
74. Working shoelaces
DOWN
1. “For ____ a jolly ...”
2. Circle parts
3. Awful
4. Create a sculpture
5. *Mobile computer
6. *____-friendly
7. *Directional helper
8. Appear like a chick
9. Winglike
10. “It’s time!” signal
11. Impulse
12. One who eyes another
15. Costing nothing
20. Public ____, rappers
22. As opposed to mishap
24. It’s often sudden death
25. *____ drive
26. Indian metropolis
27. Greek bazaar
29. Long, long time, alt.
spelling
31. Mandolin’s cousin
32. Parkinson’s drug
33. Root of iris
34. *Apple or Pebble, e.g.
36. Proofreader’s mark
38. Amos or Spelling
42. Perceive by olfactory
sense
45. AKA Norwegian Hound
49. Sigma Alpha Epsilon
51. *Activity tracker
54. All worked up
56. ____ bar, DQ treat
57. Skirt opening
58. A conifer
59. Largest volcano in
Europe
60. Throat-clearing sound
61. On top of
62. French Sudan, today
63. Black cat, e.g.
66. Jersey call
68. Energy unit
Answers on pg. 39
We posted... you commented...
Feedback from our
digital platforms.
Wisconsin Dept. of Justice wants
redistricting suit dismissed
Wisconsin vets urge Ron Johnson to
return campaign check
Jim Swanson: The Republican dominated
Dept. of Justice, under the thumb of a
Republican controlled Legislature and a
Republican Governor want the redistricting
suit that grossly and unfairly benefits
Republicans, dismissed? I am shocked.
Mary Schneider: He has done absolutely
nothing for the citizens of Wisconsin! He
is nothing but a tea party corporatist &
opportunist! Just think we will be paying for
his Senator benefits with tax dollars even if
he is not voted back in! Wake up Wisconsin
& vote for Russ Feingold, a man who fought
for Wisconsin.
facebook.com/
wigazette
Dennis Schmidt: They have no case
for voter fraud either and yet they insist it
happens all the time. Gee I wonder why they
are so suspicious.
@wigazette
Dana DuQuaine: Gerrymandering should
be illegal. i don’t care which side is doing it.
Gail Reichle: Stop Gerrymandering!! Stop
it NOW!!!
Yoshi Hoffman: Veterans need to realize
that despite what the Republicans say. Their
actions and policies are anti veteran.
Kate Leighton: He won’t, and you can’t
make him!
Kentucky clerk to continue to deny
marriage rights to gay couples
through her appeal
Brent Knudson: God told her to deny
same sex couples a marriage, but the
thousands of other Christian clerks in the
country he neglected to pass on the memo?
Erik Wiken: Christianity by convenience.
Well done, hypocrite.
Steven Schmitzer: Let me see if i have
the story correct...Divorce is between the two
applying for the licence and God. However
if the two happen to be of the same gender
then its between the two applying for the
license, God and the Clerk.
| August 27, 2015
47
48
| August 27, 2015

Aug. 27, 2015 - Wisconsin Gazette

Transcription

Similar documents

Wisconsin TEAM BEEF - Wisconsin Beef Council

the PDF

OUR SUPPORTERS - SheRocks Wisconsin

2016 Concert Schedule

FaMIly PaSS - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

4 • Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News By Reed Karaim and

WUCA 75th ANNIVERSARY - Wisconsin Underground Contractors

pick `n save center - Mid-America Real Estate Group

primary hospital affiliates - Medical College of Wisconsin

BE A PIONEER