CricketToes

Call to Action: Save Paper Boat

Mary Louise Schumacher is reporting that Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery, one of the most dedicated local purveyors of DIY and handmade craft, may have to close if business doesn't increase by March.

While this is yet another immensely depressing sign o' the economic crunch, we do have a whole month to get our bodies and wallets over to 2375 S. Howell Avenue to show co-owners Faythe Levine and Kim Kisiolek how much we appreciate their invaluable contribution to the community and hopefully save Paper Boat.

Let's go, kids! Anything this good is worth shelling out the moola for.

Gorilla Marketing in a Tutu

Ladies and Germs, this is proof that innovative marketing and advertising doesn't have to cost an arm, a leg or a toe shoe. Ingenious!

This has been all over the blogosphere, but I felt the need to jump on the bandwagon--doesn't happen very often, people, so be sure to mark down this date.

(via Mark Frauenfelder on Boing Boing and Robyn Miller on Dinosaurs and Robots)

The Conchords Are Coming!

Holy crack, kids! The New Zealand duo Flight Of The Conchords are coming back to the Riverside Theater in downtown Miltown. Bret and Jemaine will wow and stupefy the crowd during two shows May 2 and tickets go on pre-sale this Monday, February 2, at 10AM.

While I realize that I've just blown our übercool cover by telling y'all this news, I'm just so excited that I care not one wit that you now know we're novelty music geeks. Foux du Fafa!

Buy Tix

UPDATE: Vote Will Allen for White House Farmer

Will Allen, Milwaukee urban farmer and all-around awesome guy, is currently running third in the poll to be considered for the White House Farmer position, but he's holding on by a very slim margin.

Only the top three vote-getters will have the honor of having their names submitted to President Obama and his staff to create and fill this important official position.

The poll is open through midnight tomorrow, January 31, but don't wait--Vote Will Now!

Related:
Vote Will Allen for White House Farmer
Fresh Foods Coming to MLK Drive

Join In the 2009 RPM Challenge Madness!

In a little over 2 days, an utterly insane, completely wacky annual event lasting 28 days--29 in leap years--will kick off, and those of you who work and/or play in the realm of music and sound are invited to join in. It's called the RPM Challenge and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write and record 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material during the oh so short month of February.

The RPM Challenge is designed as a vehicle of action for musicians and really anybody with an interest in making stuff people can listen to. It gets you up off your bar stool--or back on it, if that's how you roll--to create, produce and record all those little ditties that've been floatin' around in your brainpan for the last year or more.

The possibilities are limitless and the conditions are few:
1. A minimum of 10 songs or 35 minutes of original, recorded material is required.

2. Recording can only be done in the month of February--no prerecorded songs.

3. All material must be previously unreleased, and you're encouraged to write the material during February as well.

4. All material must be burned to a CD and mailed, with a postmark no later than noon on March 1, 2009, to:
RPM HQ
10 Vaughan Mall, Suite 1
Portsmouth, NH 03801
USA
Note: Since March 1 is a Sunday this year, items mailed on March 1 will receive a March 2 postmark, which is acceptable.

Make sure to burn another CD for yourself just in case something frightfully bad happens to your electronic files, 'kay?

So, besides giving you an impetus to create and shed your lazy ways for 28 days, what other benefits does the RPM Challenge offer? Well, as a participating musician/band, you'll get your own page on the RPM website, where you can blog, upload MP3 files and get access to the band-only discussion board to swap ideas, resources, tall tales, tears of frustration, hoots of Yippee!--whatever. Also, you can e-mail and send private messages to other participants.

Those who just can't fathom doing something like this unless it entails some showing off will be pleased to know that all completed albums may be put up in the online RPM Jukebox. Of course, the more timid among us can choose for that not to happen and may submit their work for the ears of RPM organizers only.

The RPM Challenge is an international event and work from all corners of the world will be represented, so sign up and join in the global music/noise/sound fun!

Link

Vote Will Allen for White House Farmer

Good buddy Stephen Bybee informed me this morning about an exciting project he'd heard about from equally good buddy Kim Kisiolek of Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery called the First White House Farmer. The brainchild of the Brockman farm family of central Illinois, the project is currently taking votes online to determine the top three of 100 nominated farmers, including Milwaukee's own Will Allen of Growing Power.

Allen founded Growing Power as a nonprofit urban farming and food distribution organization and land trust in 1993. Over the years, Allen has deservedly earned respect and accolades from around the world for his work, most recently having received the honor of being named a recipient of the 2008 MacArthur Grant and Wisconsin's 2009 MLK Heritage Award (video of award presentation, starting at the 00:24:09 mark).

The project's goal is to submit the names of the top three vote-getters to President Barack Obama and his staff so that they may create the official position of White House Farmer. His/her duties will include planting, cultivating and harvesting organic fruits and vegetables on five acres of the White House lawn, all of which will be chopped, prepared and served by the White House Chef and area food banks.

At last check, Will had secured 7% of the vote. The poll closes at the stroke of midnight, January 31, so click on over there and get votin' for Will Allen now!

(Thanks, Stephen and Kim!)

Related:
Fresh Foods Coming to MLK Drive

Day Into Night Spoken Word Marathon

How many poets does it take to raise funds for a nonprofit literary center and bookstore in fifteen hours? 125 to read their work and 0 to sit mute. And that's precisely what will be happening this Saturday, January 31, as Woodland Pattern, 720 E. Locust Street, holds its Annual Poetry Marathon & Benefit.

From 10AM to 1AM, poets, writers and performers will strut their work and stuff before the microphone, thrilling audiences with their alliteration and insights for a full 5 minutes each. Last year's event brought in an astounding 500 people--the kind of support rarely garnered for the often underappreciated art of the word.

Just one of the many writers/poets of note appearing during the marathon is Milwaukee native Carmen Alicia Murguia, author of the The New Carmen! ¡La Nueva Bizet! (in this opera our heroine lives), which was published last year and Cricky had the pleasure of reviewing back in October, 2008. Frequently utilizing both Spanish and English within the same piece, Murguia presents a truly unique voice through a consistently innovative and contemporary style. She is scheduled to read between 11PM and midnight.

Vidas de la poesía!

Link (Thanks, Tamiko!)

Related:
Book Review: The New Carmen Lives

Pfister to Continue Heinemann's Tradition of Yummy Goodness

Downtown Milwaukee's legendary Pfister Hotel has decided to honor the recently fallen Heinemann's restaurants by accepting Heinemann's gift cards and adding three beloved recipes to the menu of the Cafe at the Pfister restaurant.

For 85 years, Heinemann's served some of the best comfort food in town, so if you've a got favorite dish, vote for it here.

Long live the Grilled Coffee Cake!

(via Milwaukee Business Journal)

WMSE Takes Fund-Raising to It's Most Logical Conclusion

Whaddya do if you're a community supported radio station in need of dough but the usual ways of begging have lost their luster? Ya sit your keister down and start throwing out every conceivable and inconceivable idea until you've got nothin' left in your noggin. After the dust settles and you've had a little nap, ya go through the list you've created in sheer delirium and pick out the most absurd, wholly nonsensical fund-raising scheme ever devised, shouting, "Eureka! It's so crazy it just might work!" This, my friends, is exactly what I imagine occurred just around this time last year at WMSE 91.7 FM when the nutty kids who run the place came up with the 1st Annual Own a Piece of WMSE Online Auction.

I know, right--an auction ain't that out there, so what's the big deal? See the thing is, this online auction is unique because instead of the winning bidders cheering for joy as they wait for their item to be delivered to their home, they yelp in merriment as their generous bid ensures that their hard fought over item stays put at WMSE and helps the station raise money so it can continue to offer the most eclectic mix of music on the airwaves. It's mad genius!

Okay, so the 2nd Annual Own a Piece of WMSE Online Auction starts this coming Monday, February 2, and there'll be 20 items up for bid, like the much coveted On-Air Light and the incomparable Music Library/Live Room. New for this year's auction are the must-own-for-the-good Men's Urinal and Ladies Stall #1. Oh what proud owners you'll be.

It's pretty clear that they've all got a screw loose over there--as most folk in radio do--but maybe you can bid on that, too!

Link

Espresso: Sexier Than You Ever Wanted

Image via http://www.lavazza2009.com

The 114 year old Italian espresso company Lavazza hired legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz to shoot its 2009 Calendar and, as should come as no surprise to any of you, it's filled to the brim with sexy ladies.

It may just be me and feel free to disagree, but when I think about espresso my mind doesn't necessarily leap to an image of a human female scantily clad in an animal skin, doppio cup in hand, pretending to be the she-wolf nursemaid of Romulus and Remus. I guess we can all be happy that Leibovitz decided not to provide a faithful reenactment of the famous statue, eh?

Now, listen, I got nothin' against showin' a bit o' epidermis, but I'm not entirely sure that this is what I want to see when I'm jotting down a dentist appointment or trying to figure out what date my niece's sixth birthday falls on. Then again, perhaps the mundane of daily life could benefit from a little more va-va-voom.

Link (via CoffeeTalk)