CricketToes

State Commerce Dept. Takes Aim at Film Tax Credit

The Wisconsin Department of Commerce released a cost benefit "analysis" today that lambastes the Film Wisconsin Tax Credit (SB 563) for being "an unlimited liability for Wisconsin." I placed the word analysis in quotes because it's really just a lame, dumbed down presentation of bullet points, hypotheticals, pretty graphs, and funny lookin' caricatures of The Hard Workin' Man and The Evil Hollywood Film Director--yeah, I know some of 'em are jackasses but ya can find asses aplenty in any industry.

The report mainly focuses on the economic data garnered from the shooting of Public Enemies, a major film that saw production last year at several different locations in the state, including Milwaukee. Now, I'm not an accountant or government bean counter, but shouldn't an "analysis" include more than one example? Just sayin'.

Truly, this thing has to be seen to be believed, and ya know what? You can download it at the Department of Commerce's website if you're up for a few good chuckles.

The Film Wisconsin Tax Credit has already landed on Governor Doyle's budgetary chopping block, but backers of the incentive are gaining support to save it, albeit in a modified form.

Link

Related:
Help Wisconsin Film to Help Yourself

Artsy Creative Talk Renders Artsy Types Speechless

Last week there were two meetings of the artsy kind held in Milwaukee--the Cultural Alliance's Creative Coalition Update Meeting and The State of Art-Open Forum at the Haggerty Museum of Art--neither of which could be attended by Cricky due to a crippling dental problem. In my post reminding y'all of the happenings, I expressed my steadfast belief that those able to make it to these events would let the rest of us know the details of what transpired.

I waited and waited, pain pills in bloodstream, and yet nothing appeared--not anywhere. I got no comments on this here blog. There was nada on the notorious electronic chatterbox known as the Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (MARN) listserv. Zip was the word on Artsy Schmartsy, though he's überbusy right now so we forgive him. Mike Brenner had no snarky commentary to chew on. I knew Mary Louise Schumacher had planned to attend the Haggerty Forum but even her blog remained mute.

To cap it off, there wasn't and still isn't a recap of the Creative Coalition Update Meeting on the Cultural Alliance's website, however, Christine Harris did offered up a brief tweet--is there any other kind?--by stating, "Great meeting last night with 150 very creative folks from MKE region." Sounds swell, but what happened?

Developing a high level of patience is something I've been consciously working on for... well, let's just say a very long time, and after twiddling my brain for some days I finally spied a message posted on the MARN listserv on Saturday authored by local artist Gary John Gresl in regards to The State of Art. Well, Huzzah! I was beginning to think it hadn't gotten off the springboard 'cause turnout was bad and what the hell does it matter if no one's there to hoot 'n' holler for your famous belly flop or off-balance swan dive, huh?

Anyhoo, the first two paragraphs of Gresl's message convey what I pretty much expected but not exactly what I wanted to hear:

"The silence on MARN after last Thursday's Haggerty Museum's panel discussion about the state of art in our state is telling. I think it is strong suggestion that, despite energy and ideas revealed during the event, there will likely be no action or positive results. There were plenty of people there familiar with MARN who might have something to say on this public forum, but apparently what they saw and heard still lies fallow in their brains. Maybe...maybe some few people will record what they heard in their memories and it may influence some actions in the future, but I am inclined to believe it was a nice opportunity to voice ideas and complaints that will bear no fruit.

Why? Because any action will take one or a few individuals to commit to real effort, hard work and hours spent. Unless individuals take responsibility and dedicate energies and time, nothing in any field is accomplished. The status quo remains, or worse, decline sets in. Some few activist individuals have to step forth with ideas and actions...but then working alone can quickly cause burn out, especially when one must try to bend the unbendable."

Kinda depressing, no? I mean, we of the arts and creative community have had one meeting after another here, folks--whether it's been a MARN thingy, a Cultural Alliance thingy or one of these open forum thingys--but we seem to be booked on an excruciatingly slow ocean liner, destination unknown, with a few scattered and sparsely populated islands of workshops and initiatives along the way. Is there a navigation map to be had, 'cause I haven't seen one yet.

As much as I'm a stalwart independent and believe that individual artists have to make decisions based on what's best for each one of them, I admit that I would like this somewhat fructose-tinged togetherness talk to lead somewhere, to some common good, so we can all reap whatever benefits we can. Really I do--I'm an old school socialist from way back, man.

But the time and energy of individuals can only be stretched so thin, and I agree with Mike Brenner's response to Gresl's message when he states that "it comes down to two things. money and participation." It's a hard, cold truth but people need to get compensated to do these things--to organize, to market, to work--otherwise nothing gets done 'cause there just ain't enough of anything in the day/week/month/year if ya can't feed yourself and/or others who depend on you. And if the "arts leaders," as Brenner calls 'em, can't recognize that and set an example by valuing and compensating individual artists and art lovers for the work they do for the cause, then we're up a familiar and aptly named creek without a paddle while facing downwind, kids.

Course, no matter what happens, independent artists will always remain, sometimes barely eking out a living and taking all kinds of jobs when we need to, because that's who and what we are. Once an artist, always an artist, and there's no gettin' out alive.

Clearly the moral of this story is that I've gotta floss more often--and you should, too!--so I won't be forced to miss any microscopic particles of intel that could be imparted during one of these meetings. Maybe I should bring one of those tiny dentist mirrors with me to the next one so I can see if the answers are hiding somewhere deep in the crevices of the usual broad statements and grand overtures.

UPDATE: Cricky reader Judith Ann Moriarty has left a very helpful comment:

"you really missed the boat! ThirdCoastDigest.com had a great posting by Brian Jacobsen, the very next morning following the Visual Art blather at the Haggerty...."

Why, yes he did! And all are free to read it here.

To the remark that I "really missed the boat," all I can say is that pain and drugs will often leave a person stranded on the dock with no actual clue as to what's going on, let alone which boat he/she should board, so I claim sanctuary in the simple nature of humanity.

Related:
Two Nights of Artsy Creative Talk

MF Hatches Brilliant Idea, But Will It Play in Miltown?

Milwaukee Film, the fledging organization that stuck a thumb deep in the eye of the now floundering Milwaukee International Film Festival (MIFF), has birthed an absolutely ingenious scheme to have a shuttle bus run from downtown Milwaukee all the way out to the North Shore Cinema in swank Mequon suburbia land for their ongoing screening series "Monday Night at the Movies with Milwaukee Film."

The only thing keeping this idea on the drawing board and out of reality is the fact that they have no clue as to whether or not folks will go for it. So, as all interactive enlightened types would do, they're asking everyone and anyone to send an email letting them know if y'all would be up for using the service.

Given the economic crunch and the "greening" of all things, I say you take 'em up on their offer for a ride to the movies. Best thing is that you won't have to deal with your annoying brother/sister buggin' the sh*t outta you and your friends, or have your Mom say something that turns your face the shade of a ripe tomato. Course, if you invite 'em along you've only yourself to blame.

Send your positive email ASAP to info at milwaukee-film dot org.

The next screening is this Monday, March 30, at 7:00PM, featuring the Portuguese musical extravaganza Fados:

Related:
Out of the Ether: Milwaukee Film DOES Have a Website
Curmudgeonly Old Fart Schools Milwaukee Film in Proper Language
Milwaukee Film Forces Info Seekers into Facebook's World of Terror
The Maestro Pulls No Punches
Milwaukee International Film Festival Cat Fight

Guerrilla Girls Take Ireland

For years Kev and I have regularly received email newsletters from Millennium Court Arts Centre (MCAC) in Portadown, Northern Ireland, not because we've ever been there but as a reminder to ourselves that someday we will blissfully go to the land of fiddles and Guinness to take in whatever art is showing at the time. MCAC's latest email informed us that a group of artists we'd not thought about in many moons was going to be performing at the Centre next week as a part of an all-Ireland tour. Their name? The Guerrilla Girls.

For those of you unfamiliar with the troupe--and by all that is revolutionary, ya shouldn't be!--The Guerrilla Girls started just around the same time I began my obsessive journey into the color black, otherwise known as 1985. Their formation was spurred in response to the New York Museum of Modern Art's exhibition An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture. Touted as the definitive summary of all the "important" contemporary art in the world up to that point, it was predominately male and painfully white.

Frustrated with the usual protest tactics that no longer garnered attention from an apathetic, seen-it-all population, members of The Guerrilla Girls--all artists themselves--decided to take on the discriminatory status quo existent at all levels of the art world by plastering stickers and posters wherever they could to expose these injustices. They perpetrated this and other actions anonymously by taking the names of dead female artists and wearing guerrilla masks, which they still do whenever they perform in order to avoid any one of their personalities from getting in the way of their work.

Anyhoo, over the past 24 years The Guerrilla Girls have expanded their conscience raising efforts by targeting other notoriously sexist and racist industries, including film, politics and the public policy system. And they're funny!

The Guerrilla Girls will be touring Ireland from March 31 through April 3, then it's back to the States for some Midwest gigs. According to their datebook, the closest they'll get to Milwaukee this spring is at the University of Chicago on April 17. They'll also be performing in Normal, Illinois--haha, they won't know what hit 'em! Their schedule, however, is nowhere near complete, so keep your eyes peeled just in case they decide to drop in. Guerrilla fingers crossed!

Two Nights of Artsy Creative Talk

Miltown is playing host to two separate happenings to discuss all things related to the arts, culture and whatever you can link up with 'em: the Cultural Alliance's Creative Coalition Update Meeting tonight and The State of Art-Open Forum at the Haggerty Museum of Art tomorrow night.

Cricky was all set to attend tonight's RSVP only Creative Coalition Update Meeting but the unrelenting, stabbing pain of a tooth ache has sidelined me. I'm hoping that some of you folks who do go will fill the rest of us in over the next couple o' days. In fact, if history provides any indication, I'm confident you will and with gusto.

Thursday's The State of Art-Open Forum at the Haggerty Museum, 13th and Clybourn Streets, starts at 7PM and is open to anyone who wants to traipse on over. Barring a total collapse of my choppers, I'll try my utmost to get to that one.

Slated discussion leaders at the forum include:
Debra Brehmer, arts writer/owner of Portrait Society Gallery/art history instructor at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD)

Polly Morris, Director of Development, Marketing & Outreach at UWM Peck School of the Arts/Milwaukee Arts Board member

Jane Simon, Curator of Exhibitions, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art

George Tzougros, Executive Director, Wisconsin Arts Board

That's certainly a different lineup than the usual suspects as of late, so it should be interesting, no?

Also, it's being held in conjunction with the exhibit Current Tendencies, featuring the work of Wisconsin artists at various stages of development. Honestly, it looks to be a pretty good show.

It’s a Rummage-O-Rama at DeLind Gallery!

News that William DeLind will be moving his gallery into the George Watts & Son store in April has the whole North Shore Nancy crowd all atwitter, as it means they'll be able to shop for überexpensive china that none of your ilk could ever afford, don hats with megawide brims--complete with full flower beds atop--while sipping tea and nibbling crumpets, and be absolutely charmed by the beguiling, not-at-all worn out fade of Beastie sculptures in just one convenient place! Yes, DeLind does indeed still sell those tired monstrosities.

According to the Milwaukee Business Journal, the plan is for DeLind to take over approximately 1,500 square feet of the main floor of Watts on the south end, corner of E. Mason and N. Jefferson Streets in downtown Milwaukee.

Since this'll be a downsizing for the gallery, DeLind explains on his website that the "... current location is packed nearly wall-to-wall with pieces that have been brought up from storage, waiting to be relocated." One of our good buddies had a slightly different assessment of the situation the other night, quipping, "It's like a bad art rummage sale over there." Haha, zing!

At any rate, DeLind is having a huge sale through March 28, so if you have a NS Nancy in your family be sure to let her know or she'll never forgive you.

Link

No Sizzle in the Third Ward this Summer

In yet another heart wrenching, bad economy inducing turn of events, the 2009 Historic Third Ward Summer Sizzle Jazz Festival has been cancelled. Man, it just ain't fair.

While I certainly understand and respect the ward's Association for being financially responsible enough to insist that the festival be able to pay for itself, the Summer Sizzle has consistently brought some the best jazz musicians to Miltown and I for one am greatly disappointed.

They say their gonna have "a bigger and better Sizzle in 2010" but what are we supposed to do this summer, huh? Here's hoping The Jazz Estate can come up with a stellar lineup to fill this gaping hole.

Link (via BizTimes Daily)

Publisher Proves Genius by Stating the Obvious

At the most recent Publishers Advertising and Marketing Association (PAMA) luncheon in swanky New York City, stressed-out publicists and marketing flacks were made aghast by guest speaker Jonathan Karp's revolutionary idea to save the sinking ship: Publish less crap!

That's right, people, someone within the industry that's been tripping all over itself to become #1 in the out-of-ideas category--Hollywood will never surrender!--is actually speaking up for a little thing called common sense and advocating for quality over quantity. Well, it's about damn time.

According to GalleyCat, Karp, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of TWELVE--a relatively young house that cranks out no more than one book per month--had this to impart to his weary yet stoic colleagues:

"We're not unlike the banks that sprung up... offering credit cards and loans to everyone who walked in the door. There are too many books, and too many of them are derivative of each other... Express your enthusiasm and your criticism of specific books loudly, and be truthful—in my ideal world, no book would be launched until the people responsible for its launch had read it, discussed it, and decided it was ready to go out into the world."

My my my my my--that's exactly the kind of talk that would have landed you on a fast motorboat into publishing exile not one year ago. No doubt, the very notion that publicists and marketing folk should discuss let alone read a book their pushing to the masses must have hit the ears of those in attendance as something bordering on the absurd--mad even.

To those who meet Karp's words with shudders of disgust and fear, I urge you to remember this: Change is hard but death is final.

Link

Related:
Breaking: Random House Finally Figures Out that Books Can Be Mobile

Spreenkler Gets WIRED Up

Back in December, Cricky got an email from Steve Glynn, President of the Milwaukee-based idea incubator Spreenkler, informing me that it had received a sizable award from the WIRED Innovation Fund. In the interest of living up to the notion that I'm not a "real" journalist and therefore free from the usual obligations and deadlines of reporting--ah, sweet denial--I of course put off scheduling an interview with Glynn and Spreenkler's Director of Marketing & Client Services, Sara Gehl, for a couple of months. But now I have all the intel and can bring you this "breaking" report.

With offices housed within the confines of Bucketworks, Spreenkler has made the leap from a relatively modest champion of creative/techy types and monthly interdisciplinary meetup organizer to a full-on participant in the push to bring business into the 21st Century. How did the Spreenkler folks do this? Well, with a little pondering and tinkering they created Spreenkler the Agency, and it is for this program that they were awarded some $120,000 from the WIRED Innovation Fund.

The mission of Spreenkler the Agency is to connect creative, tech savvy college students with businesses, organizations and institutions throughout southeastern Wisconsin to their mutual benefit and to keep talented people from fleeing the area, leaving the rest of us to senselessly bump into walls out of sheer confusion.

They hire--meaning they actually pay!--college students part-time to provide creative services to real-world clients, helping them to develop technical and other highly prized skills. In turn, businesses and organizations signed with the Agency get fancy new websites, entry into or increased presence in social media, graphic work--whatever they need to get moving further into the realm of The Internets™ and out of the dreaded and oh so crowded Pit Of The Obsolete--at a reduced cost.

By working with actual clients while still in college, students have the opportunity to create inroads into the world of business, making a network for themselves that will allow them to more easily secure internships and get jobs after graduation based on their work at the Agency. The businesses, of course, benefit by having a pool of known talent from which to draw instead of tossing a job opening post out to ride on the wind of who knows where.

So far, Spreenkler has scored some pretty big clients, including International Monetary Systems (IMS) Barter Network and Trade Exchange, which had its birth in little ol’ New Berlin, Wisconsin--who knew, huh?--and The United Performing Arts Fund (UPAF), just to name two. To keep up with increasing interest in the program, they've hired two young go-getters, Dawn Zimmerman as Lead Designer and Bill Bensman as Social Media Campaign Coordinator.

Along with its creative services, Spreenkler the Agency advises and consults with organizations new to the Electronic Age on just what to expect from their newfangled ventures into MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, et al. From how to deal with nasty trolls to handling the often overwhelming numbers of good, bad and ugly comments from an interactive audience/customer base, Glynn and his team work to prepare the innocent for the experience they've yet to gain.

I asked Glynn if they also encourage businesses to offer paid, substantial internships rather than luring in youngsters with hollow promises like "Looks great on your resume!" and "Get the experience you need without all the hassles of a paycheck!" when they'll really just end up as glorified gophers. His response was yes, they do indeed advise companies and orgs to offer internships complete with actual work and pay, adding that talented people "shouldn't get lost within the company." Well, huzzah to that!

For those of you worried that all this attention to the Agency will weaken Spreenkler's original mission of networking and meetups, have no fear. The meetups will continue on, with the next one scheduled for Wednesday, April 8, beginning at 5:30PM at Bucketworks. The topic? Arts and Culture. A panel of "experts" is being lined up right now, and rumor has it that some wacko invited Cricky to be on that panel and that Kev is going to be showing some of his new paintings as well. These baseless rumors have got to stop, people! I mean, wha... Oh yeah, we are gonna be there. In that case, hope to see ya there, too!

Link (Thanks, Steve & Sara!)

Related:
A Valuable Lesson Learned OR How Being Lazy Can Come Back to Bite You on the Ass
Spreenkler Scores Mayor as Guest Speaker

A Collaborative Reason to Step into MAM After Dark

Tomorrow, March 20, the Milwaukee Art Museum's ongoing series, MAM After Dark, will offer up more than the usual public display of the tragically hip as 16 pairs of first-year Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) students and established local artists unveil the results of their experimental collaboration. Well, hey, that sounds like something worth headin' out for, don't it?

Organized by Jason S. Yi and Lynn Tomaszewski, both well established artists and respected educators at MIAD, the project was designed to bring artsy students together with artsy professionals. With a focus on concept, the mediums of collaboration were chosen by the participants and vary from drawing to sculpture to performance to video to printmaking.

And speaking of printmaking, one of the pro artists just happens to be one of our BFFs, the übertalented high priestess of the ink and press Tamiko Dargan! She paired up with up-and-coming art student Nate Pyper--okay, we don't know that for sure, but if he learned anything from Tamiko he soon will be--who, prior to this foray, was a printmaking virgin.

Now, before ya get all, "Printmaking, huh? I bet she ran the whole show," just put away your claws, kitty, 'cause here's what Tamiko had to say about the experience:

"I think it was a true collaboration and I wanted it to be. I think we were both respectful & considerate in our approach with this project. We or at least I should say, I wanted it to be us coming to it together on the same level no matter what the experience level because we could learn from each other; so definitely no hierarchy, no egos. Of course, during the printmaking process I had to guide him, but he took to it really quickly without hesitation and he didn't seem bored:) Considering that it was a crash course, I think he did really well. I was excited with our collaboration; how we were able to put pieces together without force was nice. I couldn't have asked for a better partner."

Such praise! Let's hope all the pairs had the same fab time, and we can find out tomorrow at MAM from 5PM to midnight.

Link (Thanks, Tamiko & Jason!)