http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus Print content from ISTHMUS | The Daily Page webmaster@isthmus.com (Webmaster) Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:56:01 CST Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27338 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27338 At first it seemed a strange idea: a retrospective of pop music in the first decade of the new century? Did that much happen? Actually, it was jolting to think that it has been a full 10 years since the digital calendar rolled over from three nines to three zeros. But it has. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27339 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27339 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27340 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27340 Contributing writer Tom Laskin weighs in on the Gomers' Tuesday rock workouts at the Club de Wash: "For nearly a year now, the local punk band has been building jams around wacky musical themes and kitsch-ridden visual gimmicks." One night they may "break out the flashpots and face paint and churn out a dozen Kiss covers." Another night, they might revisit Billboard's top 10 hits from 1967. "We decided to be a little bit different than the regular house band," explains Gomers guitarist Biff Blumfumgagnge. The Club de Wash is lost in the 1996 fire that consumes the Hotel Washington, but the Gomers endure, hosting Rock Star Gomeroke on Tuesdays at the High Noon Saloon and a "Slappy Hour Variety Show" twice a month at the Frequency. On Thursday, Nov. 12, they'll join others at the High Noon for a "Funk-raiser" to benefit the Madison-based Ceiba Foundation for Tropical Conservation. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27341 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27341 UP: David Runyon. WYOU bequeaths tapes from Runyon's groundbreaking TV show, Nothing to Hide, to UW's Memorial Library. The show, which ran from 1981 until Runyon's death in 2001, is said to be the world's longest-running TV show dealing with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27342 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27342 Democrats drop plans to increase the liquor tax to pay for stiffer drunk driving laws. Instead they propose increasing fees for drunk drivers. Conservative Green Bay talk-show host Jerry Bader is suspended for two weeks after claiming that Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton dropped out of the governor's race because of an affair. Lawton responds: "I will be celebrating in two weeks my 36th wedding anniversary, we have two children and four grandchildren, and this is an outrageous lie." Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27343 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27343 Dear Tell All: Sorry, but I have to correct your assessment of fashion or the lack thereof among University of Wisconsin-Madison students. First, you are correct about UW students dressing like total slobs -- during the day. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27344 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27344 Game Four of the World Series on Sunday drew an average TV audience of 22.8 million viewers. That was the highest among the first five games and the largest baseball audience since 2004, when an average of 25.4 million people watched the Red Sox sweep the Cardinals for Boston's first title since 1918. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27345 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27345 Timothy Baker has a problem with psychology today. He thinks it bears a dangerous resemblance to the medicine of yesteryear: anecdotal, unscientific, as likely to hurt as help. "[D]espite compelling research support for the merits of specific interventions for specific problems, clinical psychology, as a field, has failed to embrace these treatments," writes Baker, a professor of medicine at the UW-Madison's School of Medicine and Public Health, in a paper that's generating national attention and controversy. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27349 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27349 Jeremi Suri wants the UW-Madison, where he's a rising-star history professor, to be bolder, more daring, more adept at reaching out. Unafraid of controversy. More, come to think of it, like Suri himself. "We should be a place that takes risks [and] pushes boundaries between disciplines and in the way we teach." Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27350 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27350 As a historian, Suri is an engaging commentator. Here are his off-the-cuff thoughts on a grab bag of current issues. President Obama's record so far: "I think he's done quite well, especially on foreign policy. He's shown, out of instinct as much as experience, that you gain influence by reaching out to people. Reaching out is not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength, and [the U.S.] has benefited from that enormously." Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27351 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27351 It's hard to get a handle these days on the fortunes of Lee Enterprises, the Iowa-based half-owner of Capital Newspapers, whose products include <i>The Wisconsin State Journal</i> and <i>The Capital Times</i>. Staffs, resources and compensation have been cut at both papers, as throughout the Lee chain and most of the newspaper industry. Morale has suffered, and the newsrooms are hard-pressed to keep up with print and online coverage demands. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27352 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27352 Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is pleased with how it all turned out: "I got less resistance than I thought I would." The mayor is referring to the recent unanimous passage of his Northeast Neighborhood plan, which includes design features aimed at achieving a 25% reduction in the use of vehicles, water and energy. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27353 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27353 I've been thinking a lot lately about how Wisconsin deals with citizens who abuse alcohol. With our dismal drunk-driving statistics, arguments over whether or not to allow children into bars with their folks, and proposals on everything from the size of liquor bottles that may be sold to the taxes placed on beer, the regulation of alcohol is a hot topic these days. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27354 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27354 What did <i>The Wisconsin State Journal</i> not know and when didn't it know it? Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27355 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27355 Phil Lewis, UW emeritus professsor of landscape architecture and main force behind the Nine Springs Greenway, will be honored next week by budding bioneers. Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27291 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27291 Pam Thompson's February 2006 breast cancer diagnosis had been the shock of her life. But after a year of treatment, she thought the worst was over. The 50-year-old Sun Prairie woman had no idea a fight remained, on a front she never expected. Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27292 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27292 Finally, here's some change we can believe in. The U.S. blockade on Cuba is alive and well, but Obama's given us wiggle room. For the first time since the start of W's second term, Cuban artists can get visas to visit the States. Thanks to impressive efforts by the Madison-Camagüey Sister City Association, with support from Edgewood College, the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission, and the Overture and Pleasant T. Rowland Foundations, painter Orestes Larios Zaak and sculptor Gregorio Pérez Escobar will be our guests. It's part of the Madison-Camagüey association's 15th anniversary celebration. Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27293 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27293 Alison Margaret's arms are adorned with as many tattoos as the punk and metal musicians who play at venues like the Annex or the Frequency. But Margaret leads a jazz quartet backed by a soothing vibraphone and a stately upright bass. She gigs at places where wine and fine dining are in vogue, the Brink Lounge and Restaurant Magnus. Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27294 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27294 Across 16 tracks, this Minneapolis rapper laments the double lives of gays, racial minorities and children of divorce. He professes his love for his family and his God. He even brags a little about being a bad motherfucker. Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27295 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27295 There's no shortage of indie rock circulating in 2009. Most of it is dense, impressionistic and gently psychedelic. That's not the road Built to Spill travel on their seventh full-length CD. Tracks such as "Life's a Dream" put the brakes on the tempo while maintaining the salience of verse-chorus-verse songwriting.