A tree falls in Madison Livable cities need healthy trees. Are we doing enough to protect ours? Katherine Esposito on Friday 10/02/2009 I imagine a sniper in the sky, picking them off, one by one. Ping! There goes a tree on Waubesa Street, chopped down without warning during construction. Boom! Down comes a maple on Talmadge, felled due to a neighbor's wish to build a new driveway. Bam! There goes an oak in Olin Park, victim of a fungal disease known as oak wilt. >More
NEWS
Mike Verveer wants new benches without the bum-proofing Alder has no problems with people sleeping on the Square Joe Tarr on Thursday 10/01/2009 This summer, city workers installed dividers on some benches around Capitol Square at the behest of the Central Business Improvement District to keep people from sleeping on them. >MoreThe north side's art project Joe Tarr on Thursday 10/01/2009 North Madison is looking at public art as a way of creating more of an identity. Linda Horvath, a Madison urban planner who has worked with north-side neighborhoods to develop the Northside Plan, says, "Part of the neighborhood planning process focused on creating a stronger identity for the area and using that to improve economic development." >MoreAlcoholics Anonymous clubhouse needs extreme makeover But anonymity makes it harder to sound an alarm and raise funds Jay Rath on Thursday 10/01/2009, (2) Recommendations Just off Langdon Street, near sororities and fraternities, is a secret place. It's an ivory-colored brick house haunted by decades of shame, but filled with countless stories of hope and redemption. It may be the oldest continuously operating Alcoholics Anonymous clubhouse in the world, and it's in big trouble. >More
MUSIC
The Argus goes underground Midweek gigs bring new crowd to downtown bar Rich Albertoni on Friday 10/02/2009, (3) Recommendations When Rick Brahmer and Gwen Cassis bought the Argus in 2007 and started booking local bands for midweek shows, they had a plan. "We wanted to support local music by giving younger audiences an affordable option for a night out," says Brahmer. >MoreThese United States explore America's frontiers Chums of chance Jessica Steinhoff on Friday 10/02/2009 These United States' 2008 album Crimes couldn't have had a more positive reception, winning props from Paste, Pitchfork and National Public Radio, and climbing to a very respectable number 30 on CMJ's Top 200 radio chart. >MoreHockey: Mind Chaos (Capitol) Rich Albertoni on Friday 10/02/2009 "Indie" has become a throwaway term if, as some online music zines are doing, it's applied to Hockey. Not only is this Portland dance band signed to a major label, their songs are as accessible as modern rock gets. >More
A tale of blind justice Dane County case gives new meaning to the term 'eye witness' Bill Lueders on Thursday 10/01/2009, (1) Recommendation Just past 2 a.m. on July 26, after a night of drinking at Pitcher's Pub in the town of Madison, John "Roth" (by all accounts a decent guy, hence my use of a pseudonym to spare embarrassment) was robbed by two men he'd met at the bar. >MoreHaute Badger fashion Are UW students shabby dressers? on Thursday 10/01/2009 Dear Tell All: I'm shocked by how badly UW-Madison students dress for class. Most of them look like they put on any old thing that happened to be sitting on the laundry pile next to their beds. It's like they're dressed for cleaning the house, not attending a university. They seem perfectly happy to look tacky, and it makes you understand why people in cultural centers like New York or Los Angeles sneer at us here in the Midwest. >More
Your handy guide to the 2009 Wisconsin Book Festival Who to see and where to be this year David Medaris on Friday 10/02/2009 "When we walk," Thoreau wrote, "we naturally go to the fields and woods." True enough, but so what? Once you've arrived at the literary meadows and forests of the Wisconsin Book Festival, the great Henry David's aphorism is little help finding a path through its thickets of words -- and there must be scores of trails from which to choose. >MoreUW professors begin dance season with challenging works Susan Kepecs on Friday 10/02/2009 If the dance-tainment that prevails this season seems too safe, take a ride on the edgy side with "Causeway," the first concert in the UW Dance Program's fall lineup. The show unveils two new Madison-based professional companies, both directed by UW dance profs hired last year -- Chris Walker and Kate Corby. >MoreCurb Your Enthusiasm arranges a Seinfeld semi-reunion Dean Robbins on Friday 10/02/2009, (1) Comment, (1) Recommendation Everybody dreams of a Seinfeld reunion, and this week we get one -- sort of. Seinfeld writer/co-creator Larry David stars in his own Seinfeld-like show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and he brings on Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michael Richards and Jason Alexander as special guest stars. >More
MOVIES
Whip It: Skating party Ellen Page's star shines in spirited Drew Barrymore film Marjorie Baumgarten on Friday 10/02/2009 Drew Barrymore's directing debut, Whip It, based on a screenplay about women's roller derby by Shauna Cross, teems with girl-power spirit and exudes an all-encompassing benevolence. >MoreCapitalism: A Love Story: Filthy lucre Marjorie Baumgarten on Friday 10/02/2009 The aspects of Michael Moore's filmmaking that we have come to embrace over the years -- his prominent roles as sloppy court jester and self-appointed spokesman for the American people -- are the very things that get him into trouble in his new documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story. >More
Urban homesteader Novella Carpenter comes to the Wisconsin Book Fest Farmer in the 'hood Linda Falkenstein on Friday 10/02/2009 There's not a hint of smugness in Novella Carpenter's Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. Nothing preachy or precious. No tricks. Just her curiosity. And pluck. And storytelling verve. >MoreFat Sandwich Company is wacky and bland at the same time Tastes like ketchup! Linda Falkenstein on Friday 10/02/2009, (1) Recommendation Looking at the menu at Fat Sandwich in the same week that Michael Pollan was on campus to discuss his In Defense of Food, a book about better eating practices suggested for campus-wide reading, was ironic -- maybe even surreal. If Pollan took one look at the FSC menu, I think his head would explode. >More
SPORTS & RECREATION
Madison's Friday night lights Jason Joyce on Thursday 10/01/2009 A Madison high school hasn't won a state title in football since West beat Stevens Point in 1977. City school rosters are often dwarfed by their suburban opponents, both in terms of numbers and physical size of the players. >More
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