Plugging in: Podcasts in Madison In music and in the spoken word, local culture is embracing the podcasting era Rich Albertoni on Friday 07/10/2009, (2) Recommendations As mobile devices proliferate, the way Madisonians navigate and experience local culture will be increasingly shaped by the content made available through the portable web browsers many city residents bring along on social outings. With that in mind, a growing number of Madison musicians, writers and social commentators have begun to develop content compatible with mobile consumption. >More
NEWS
On the bar beat Police enforcement team does what it can to keep order Joe Tarr on Thursday 07/09/2009, (1) Comment, (5) Recommendations For Jordan Ludwig, Oct. 31 was just a regular night out with his friends. Until the cops showed up. Ludwig, then 20, had used his older brother's ID to get in to Ram Head Ratskeller on Henry Street. He and his friends, who were also underage, quickly left when they saw the cops walk in. About a half a block away, a cop grabbed him from behind. >MoreMaybe he should have kept the hernia Uninsured man's need for care triggers billing bonanza Bill Lueders on Thursday 07/09/2009, (3) Recommendations By any measure, Bill Anderson's unpleasant encounter with the health-care system, including nearly $13,000 in bills for a minor operation, is not unusual. What's unusual is that he's fighting back. >MoreLarry Nelson's exit interview Madison's longtime city engineer submits to grueling interrogation Bill Lueders on Thursday 07/09/2009 City engineer Larry Nelson, perhaps Madison's most respected manager, is retiring on July 16, his 66th birthday. Nelson has been a city of Madison employee for 43 years, including two decades as top dog at engineering and stints as head of public works, traffic engineering and the water utility. Unfailingly accessible and responsive, Nelson agreed to an email grilling. >More
MUSIC
John Statz couch-surfs around the world Traveling troubadour Rich Albertoni on Friday 07/10/2009, (3) Recommendations After graduating from Waunakee High School in 2002, John Statz found himself in a dorm at UW-Oshkosh surrounded by musicians. So he did what friends do. He played with them. >MoreWhy Black Francis didn't go into real estate Id vicious Jessica Steinhoff on Friday 07/10/2009, (2) Recommendations Pixies frontman Black Francis -- a.k.a. Frank Black -- doesn't explore the depths of consciousness quietly: His songs writhe and scream their way out of a sludgy soup of sex, death and other primordial desires, making you wonder if he was raised by wolves or banshees or acid-dropping psychoanalysts. >MoreWilco: Wilco (The Album) (Nonesuch Records) Rich Albertoni on Friday 07/10/2009, (1) Recommendation Resigned vulnerability has always resonated in Jeff Tweedy's voice, no matter what emotions his songs express. His optimism sounds accidental, his sadness detached, his anguish ethereal. >More
OPINION & COMMENTARY
Revolution in the air How long will the American public put up with failed approaches? Rick Berg on Thursday 07/09/2009 I hate to say "I told you so," but I did. Early last year, I warned in Isthmus of an impending collision between property-tax-paying homeowners and property-tax-spending government, due to the economic downturn and collapsing home values. >MoreWomen as meat Were Tell All's pageant comments misogynistic? on Thursday 07/09/2009 Dear Tell All: Your remarks on the women in the Miss USA pageant as "meat" and "cattle" were deeply misogynistic, even if intended in the service of feminist ideology, and even if directed at a woman who repudiates gay marriage. In any case, people don't like looking at meat, they like eating it. But they do like looking at art and gardens. These would be better metaphors for beautiful women. >More
The Onion's Nathan Rabin writes a frank memoir Awful truth Jay Rath on Friday 07/10/2009 If former Madisonian Nathan Rabin were reviewing his own book, he'd give it a mixed review. "I hate uplifting stories," he says. >MoreStageQ's Riot Acts looks back at Stonewall Turning point Josh Wimmer on Friday 07/10/2009, (2) Recommendations "What I thought was going to be a fairly simple romp of a show," says director Tara Ayres, "has turned into something a lot more ambitious." The show, Riot Acts, is a two-act commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the June 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City -- generally considered the first gay-rights protests in American history. >MoreA model switches souls with a lawyer in Drop Dead Diva Mind-body problem Dean Robbins on Friday 07/10/2009 Drop Dead Diva is so enjoyable that I wished my own soul would migrate into the body of a plump, plain guy with no life to speak of. Wait a minute...I guess that's already happened. >More
MOVIES
Brüno doesn't rise to Borat's satiric heights Queer as volk Marc Savlov on Friday 07/10/2009 Sacha Baron Cohen's Brüno, which follows 2002's mostly overlooked Ali G Indahouse and 2006's hugely successful Borat, is a lot like its rampantly gay, Viennese protagonist: The film may have only the best of intentions, but it tries way too hard and ends up being shallow, superficial and only sporadically funny. >More
New Scandinavian menu pickles and tickles at Restaurant Magnus Raphael Kadushin on Friday 07/10/2009, (4) Recommendations The only really surprising thing about Restaurant Magnus' recent conversion from a pan-Latin to Scandinavian menu is the surprised local reaction, and the fact that someone hasn't hauled out the pickled herring sooner. >MoreHaute dogs The weiner graduates to the big time Linda Falkenstein on Thursday 07/09/2009, (3) Recommendations Trend watchers, take note. Former food darling bacon is out (or at least on the decline). The hot dog is on the rise. Not your average Oscar Mayer wiener -- sorry, Kraft Foods. Think of them as enhanced tube steaks, superpooches, haute dogs. >More
Mallards go batty Jason Joyce on Thursday 07/09/2009, (1) Recommendation Each spring, one of the biggest challenges facing Madison Mallards manager C.J. Thieleke is to take college players accustomed to using aluminum bats and get them comfortable hitting with wood. >More
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