CricketToes

Electronic Music Like Grandma Used to Make

What would pop into your mind if I said the name Daphne Oram? Would you think, "Wow, that's someone's name, like an actual name, and not something you just made up to stupefy me?" Or would you think, "Say, isn't that the name of the pioneering British electronic and experimental musician who looked a hell of a lot like my grandmother?" If you answered the latter, then you're not only right but due for a good mouth washin' at the hands of your granny!

Back in August, Robert Worby of The Guardian penned a fascinating profile about Oram and her work at BBC Radio and beyond. Her tale reads like that of so many women trying to get ahead and make advances in a world of testosterone, yet she persevered, becoming the cofounder of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, then branching out on her own when executives wouldn't support her genius.

Have a listen and maybe buy the CD.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Literary Freedom Lives!

Hey, kids! It's the American Library Association's annual Banned Books Week and y'all know what that means, don't ya? That's right, it's time to haul out your old copy of Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath or Walker's The Color Purple or Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings or whatever you've got that maddens those who'd like to tell us all what we can and cannot read, write, express, experience, and share.

Here's some ideas of how you can celebrate this week of literary freedom:

• Take your chosen work of controversy on the bus and flagrantly flash the cover for all to see by holding it up high as you read--never mind the arm cramps for the cause of freedom must have sacrifice!


• Walk down the street with your book, not under your arm where passersby can't see the title but strapped to your chest as an emblem of everyone's right to read what they want.


• Go to a book or poetry reading and have a call and response fest with a willing author--and I emphasize willing, okay? Don't just do it without prior conference--so for every line he or she reads, you say, "Right on!" or "Testify!"


• Bring up your favorite frequently challenged book in every conversation you have, regardless of how insane it sounds.


• Lastly and most importantly, read!

DIY Pantaloons

Madam Chino, a.k.a. Vanessa Andrew, of Fasten Co-Op Clothing Gallery will be presenting an invaluable class this weekend called "Fitting Your Britches." Why is it invaluable? Because it gives you a reason to dig in your closet, drag out those pants you've been hiding in there for two years and change them from humiliation wear that makes the mean kids down the block yell, "Your ugly and your mother dresses you funny!" into fantastic wear that makes you feel cool and überhip. Granted, the mean kids may still yell at ya because, ya know, they're mean, but at least then you can write it off as pure and simple jealousy.

Learn how to turn pants you despise into pants you cherish under Madam Chino's tutelage this Saturday, October 4, from 12:30-3PM at the UWM Studio Arts and Craft Centre. Fees are a trifling $25 for UWM students, $30 for UWM faculty, staff, alumni, and $35 for the rest of us.

Link to Classes

Prof. John Oliver's Apocalyptic Literature Rodeo

Yee Haw! It's time for Prof. John Oliver's Literature Rodeo! In this installment, John teaches a brief course on apocalypse-themed literature for your edumacation. Saddle up, kids!

Link (via Boing Boing and Kenneth Gordon)

Church's Chicken 1, Local Arteries 0

The valiant effort of Milwaukee's Walnut Way Conservation Corporation and northwest area residents to keep yet another saturated fat pusher out of their neighborhood was not rewarded by the Board of Zoning Appeals on September 18 as Church's Chicken received approval of a special-use permit. In a vote of 3-1, the zoning board, with the shortsighted backing of the Department of City Development and Ald. Willie Hines, has proved that it is mired in the kind of non-progressive thinking that keeps low-income residents in a precipitously declining state of health by denying their freedom of choice to bring more balanced and healthier food options into their community.

Even in the face of this defeat, Walnut Way cofounder Sharon Adams remains optimistic that northwest residents can take control of their neighborhood's fate and health by placing pressure on the Common Council to make an examination of the concentration of fast-food restaurants in a community a requirement in future zoning decisions. It's not over until the low-fat lady sings!

If the restaurant opens, it will join Gold Rush Chicken, Popeye's, Checker's and McDonald's along the ten blocks of Heart Disease Strip, a.k.a. North Avenue. But the special-use permit is only good for one year, so let's hope Church's either gets lazy or sick of the whole we-don't-want-you-or-your-redundant-fare thing.

Link

Related:
Neighborhood Says "Hell No!" to Church's Chicken

sfSound Tonight

You've got exactly two hours to get your butt over to Peck School of the Arts Recital Hall, 2400 East Kenwood Boulevard, to experience sfSound, a group of San Francisco-based composer/musicians working in the experimental and improvisational world of contemporary chamber music.

Members Kyle Bruckmann, Matt Ingalls, John Ingle, Graeme Jennings, Christopher Jones, and Monica Scott are here for the sfSound Residency #1 as a part of the UWM Department of Music's American Sounds Project. And where there's a #1 there's always a #2, though I couldn't find info on when that's scheduled to happen.

If you miss the not-free concert tonight at 7:30PM, you have two more opportunities to see them this weekend, which are free:

Saturday, September 27, begins at 1:30PM
Kenilworth Square East, 2155 N. Prospect Avenue
1:30 pm: Bring-your-own instrument improvisation workshop with sfSound.
2:30 pm: Lecture/demonstration on the composer/performer relationship.
3 pm: SF + local musicians, including Steve Nelson-Raney, Hal Rammel, Thomas Gaudynski and Jim Schoenecker, will hold an improvisation session.

Sunday, September 28, 2008, 1-4PM
sfSound: Open Workshops with Student Composers & Performers
PeckSchoolof the Arts Recital Hall, 2400 E. Kenwood Boulevard

Link (Thanks, Polly!)

Milwaukee Film Forces Info Seekers into Facebook's World of Terror

In a brave effort to find out what's happening with the newly created Milwaukee Film and its promise to host a festival this fall, I was forced to do something drastic and extremely unpleasant: login at Facebook--UGH, get it off me! Actually, I'm not a member of FB, so I entered disguised as, well, let's just say someone very close to me. I got in, got the intel and got the hell out. Had I been a bit more patient with my search on the Internets™ I would have eventually found Vital Source's Reel Milwaukee post, dated August 27, complete with the press release. Yes, I'm aware that it's a month old, but I'm gonna write about it anyway--I gotta get somethin' out of this terrifying journey, right? Right.

Anyhoo, the deal is that Milwaukee Film will present a showcase of locally made short films at the Oriental Theatre on Thursday, October 23, from 6:30-8:00PM. According to Milwaukee Film's FB page, this is the first of many events it will organize year-round.

Sounds good. Now all it needs is a website because the next time I click back into the bland, unimaginative, cookie-cutter world of FB is gonna be Never.

Related:
The Maestro Pulls No Punches
Milwaukee International Film Festival Cat Fight

Food Slam for the Generous Glutton in All of Us

On Friday October 3, WMSE Frontier Radio is holding its seventh annual Food Slam at Eisner American Museum of Advertising and Design from 6-10PM, giving you the rare chance to show your insatiable appetite and your magnanimous nature simultaneously. And if you order tickets in advance you save 5 bucks. Those who are unsure about their economic status at any given second--and who isn't, right?--will be allowed to purchase tickets at the door but only on the condition that they submit to a hazing à la the infamous '91 Tailhook Scandal--if you're too young to remember it, you're probably too young to get into the party--though the ass grabbing will be replaced by sever financial audits. Ha!

Tastings of food, desserts and coffee will be on offer, as well as a cash bar for all you boozehounds. Also, a silent auction is scheduled. Proceeds of the event go to benefit 91.7 WMSE Radio.

Feeling the need to help more? Add a donation to your ticket purchase and that dough will go directly to Hunger Task Force. Huzzah for yummy charitable giving!

Get More Info or Buy Tickets.

Musicians Sought to Entertain Hipster Art Students

Utrecht Art Supply at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) is looking for musicians to play for their grand opening weekend, October 10, 11 and 12.

It's a don't-miss opportunity for single troubadours lookin' to connect with single artsy types, or a chance to get mildly high on the always present and lingering art goo fumes for free!

Link

UPDATE: Join Artsy Schmartsy in a Public Grilling of Cultural Alliance

I posted an item earlier this month in regards to a seemingly inadvertent challenge issued by Milwaukee art blogger Jonathan West, a.k.a. Artsy Schmartsy, to the Cultural Alliance of Greater Milwaukee. He was wondering aloud--or is it ablog?--about the exact purpose of the org when, much to his apparent surprise, CA representative Christine Harris responded with an invitation to hold a public meeting.

Yesterday he announced the date, time and place, bidding all those with nagging questions of their own to participate in this unusual conference. The only thing he asks is that you email him an RSVP and not just crash the party.

Go to his post to find out the details of the BBQ--it's strictly BYOQ (Bring Your Own Queries).

It's worth noting that since Artsy began this discussion there is far more information on the CA website, though they have not listed this particular meeting in their calendar of upcoming events. Interesting, no?

Related:
The Art Blogger vs The Art Org