Fringe Foods: Calliope Ice Cream offers innovative frozen flavors to Madison Kyle Nabilcy on Tuesday 05/15/2012 3:16 pm In architecture or medicine, industry or food, innovation is so often the child of happy circumstance. Take, for example, the smoked apple pie ice cream recently available at the Weary Traveler. "I sauteed a bunch of apples, and I didn't really know what to do with them, and Joey [Dunscombe, chef at Weary Traveler] was smoking bacon," recalls Jason Borgmann, proprietor of Calliope Ice Cream. Looking at the smoker, he asked Dunscombe, "How about we put those in there?" >MoreCitizen Dave: The costs of college Dave Cieslewicz on Tuesday 05/15/2012 12:51 pm Why do we view a K-12 education as so important that we require it and offer it free of charge, but in an increasingly competitive world, we are making it harder to go beyond high school? When I came here to go to school at UW-Madison in 1979, my tuition was eight hundred and some dollars. >More
Scott Lamps moves easily between pop, classical and musicals The genre jumper Bob Koch on Thursday 05/10/2012 Madison has more than its share of musical chameleons, songsters who switch effortlessly between rock, country, jazz and more. You have to look harder to find people who work not only in pop but also in more complex musical genres, like classical. An example is multi-instrumentalist Scott Lamps. One of the most prolific Madison musicians right now, the UW graduate works in widely divergent genres. >MoreExposing ALEC: The Center for Media and Democracy goes after the right-wing powerhouse Erik Gunn on Thursday 05/10/2012 It was a rainy spring Friday afternoon, and Lisa Graves was feeling a little loopy. The day before she'd been in Washington, D.C., part of a coalition rallying outside the offices of the American Legislative Exchange Council protesting the conservative organization's role in passing Florida's Stand Your Ground law, now in the spotlight after the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin. >More
Beer Here: Common Thread for Madison Craft Beer Week Robin Shepard on Friday 05/11/2012 2:00 pm, (2) Comments For one week -- okay, for those counting, 10 days -- Madison Craft Beer Week has allowed us to put aside our divisions and focus attention on a common thread of interest -- beer! A brew by that very name, Common Thread, has become the toast of local brewpubs, tasting rooms and tap houses around Madison. >MoreTry JD's fabled steak burger and more at new Bassett Street restaurant Savor the soul Kyle Nabilcy on Thursday 05/10/2012 During the course of a late Friday-night run to JD's food cart -- located between Gorham and State on Broom -- my companion and I were offered mystery foil-wrapped packages (alleged to be cheesecake) by a guy on the street, lightly panhandled and mooned. If this is not your preferred gauntlet to run for a burger or a fish sandwich, then the new JD's Soul Food storefront operation on the ground floor of the Aberdeen apartments might offer a little less student-body (ahem) wackiness. >More
Whoooo's Johnny? America's favorite late-night host was a mystery man Dean Robbins on Thursday 05/10/2012 Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show for 30 years, inviting himself into American homes with the salutation "Heeeere's Johnny!" An American Masters profile begins with fellow stars praising Carson in familiar ways. He had the best jokes; he had a gift for making his guests look good; he had universal appeal. Well, okay. >More
Madison Symphony Orchestra concludes its season with a Gershwin feast John W. Barker on Saturday 05/12/2012 8:16 am The proclamation of George Gershwin as "America's greatest composer" in the promotional material may or may not in itself attract Madison Symphony Orchestra patrons, but an all-Gershwin program certainly does. The house was virtually full for the Friday evening performance in Overture Hall, and the audience was exuberantly enthusiastic. >MoreSarah Jarosz is one of Americana's rising stars Plucky prodigy Jessica Steinhoff on Thursday 05/10/2012 Talent courses through the fingers of mandolin and banjo whiz Sarah Jarosz. By age 12, bluegrass notables like Ricky Skaggs were pulling her into their jam sessions, and by age 16, she had inked a deal with Sugar Hill Records. To cap off high school, she released her debut album, Song Up in Her Head, which led Rolling Stone to call her "Gillian Welch's long-lost daughter." >More
Wisconsin Union Theater announces 2012-2013 season Kenneth Burns on Friday 05/11/2012 12:51 pm Wisconsin Union Theater, the great performing arts series hosted by the UW-Madison, has announced the lineup for its 2012-2013. One thing hasn't changed. The live schedule is a typically beguiling mix of jazz, classical, world music and theater. >MoreKevin Henkes writes his first book for beginning readers, Penny and Her Song A different way of thinking Jay Rath on Thursday 05/10/2012 Kevin Henkes is riding high following the reception of his latest book, Penny and Her Song. It's the first story for beginning readers from the Madison children's illustrator and author. "It's a very different art form," he says. "I'd never done it before, so it was exciting to try to do." >More
Barrett already fundraising on Walker's 'divide and conquer' comments caught on video Judith Davidoff on Friday 05/11/2012 Tom Barrett is already raising money off of potentially explosive video footage reported late Thursday by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, in which a then newly elected Gov. Scott Walker tells his largest donor that he intends to pursue a “divide and conquer” strategy as the first step in diffusing union power. >MoreLive-blogging the 2012 Wisconsin recall primary election Isthmus Staff on Tuesday 05/08/2012 Voters across Wisconsin will go to the polls today to cast ballots in the primaries of six recall elections, for governor, lieutenant governor, and four state senate seats. The principal race is in the Democratic primary for governor, in which Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, former Dane County Exec. Kathleen Falk, Sec. of State Doug La Follette, and state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout will vie for the opportunity to face Gov. Scott Walker in the general election. >More#dontgo: Scenes from the 2012 Mifflin Street Block Party (slideshow) Lukas Keapproth on Sunday 05/06/2012 An estimated 5,000 people gathered on Madison's Mifflin Street Saturday to celebrate an annual rite of spring, although this year they did so under the watchful eye of dozens of police officers. >MoreMORE VIDEO >>
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