"Reality"

One of the biggest problems with the way that the media portrays “reality” is that, essentially, every reporter, every journalist, is a writer at heart. As Mark Bowden discusses in his article, The Angriest Man on Television, the reporter risks having his or her story ruined by too many facts. Someone like David Simon is able to take the stories that he saw as a reporter for the Sun and tell them in a way that fits neatly into the narrative he has created. A reporter in the real world has to keep going back to the story, to keep investigating and suffer the likelihood that his story is not going to be neat and tidy. There is the very real possibility that this will lead to lazy reporting. It’s easier to report the story that reflects the “reality” created by media than to do the diligence required for a story that doesn’t fit into the narrative created by media.

As shown in the report, Prime Suspects: The Influence of Local Television News on the Viewing Public, the crime stories most often reported on are violent crimes. Of those, the ethnicity of the suspect is most likely to be mentioned when that person is African-American. Through a preponderance of these kinds of stories the media creates a “reality” where African-Americans generally commit violent crimes. The media afraid to break away from the pack reinforces this circular logic. Afraid to tell the story that doesn’t fit neatly into the narrative media has created for themselves, the same types of stories are told over and over until it becomes accepted as “reality.” Add to this the fact that minority reporters predominantly report on the majority of minority stories, in this case, crime stories, and a further level of reinforcement of the false reality is created.

Where does this leave the viewing public? Where are they to turn to in order to gain an accurate view of crime? The local media is going to go with the stories that sell, “If it bleeds, it leads.” The reporter is going to be tempted to report on the stories that fit into the easy mold, the white reporter is going to be hesitant to report on the minority issues that they are unfamiliar with. Hard work is hard. It’s easier to report on the same things that everyone else reports on, it’s easier to report on crime in the minority community than it is to report on issues that affect that community.

When we see someone like David Simon creating a fictional show that has more credibility than reality, we have to question that reality.

Head Colds and Breathing Masks

It's a strange feeling when you are told that you are sleeping wrong. I mean, it's sleeping, how can you not do it right?

When I finally got on my wife's insurance plan and had my first doctor's appointment in I don't know how long, he asked me how I was sleeping.

"The regular way," I said, "eyes closed, lying down.. you know."

He sent me to a sleep clinic where they hooked me up to a bunch of machines and told me to sleep normally. Then they proceeded to wake me up every few minutes to ask me how I was sleeping. The diagnosed me with sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is where your throat will close while you are sleeping and you will almost wake up, but not quite. You never go into the restful REM sleep so you always feel tired.

After I got my CPAP machine I started sleeping the right way. The machine consists of a mask that fits over your face. This is attached by a hose to a unit that pumps air into the mask. It creates an air pressure that keeps your throat open. It took some getting used to, but now I can't imagine life without it.

I am now suffering through my second head cold since I got the machine. It's not because of the machine, it's just your regular head cold. However nothing is quite as gross as having a runny nose while you have a mask strapped to your face that covers your nose and mouth. You wake up in the middle of the night to feel snot running across your face. Yuck. Then I as I was lying there, after going to the bathroom to blow my nose and wash my face, I realized that the machine was doing it's job. That is to create air pressure to keep my throat open. Usually, when I'm breathing through my nose, it's hardly noticeable. However, with my nose severely clogged, I was sleeping with my mouth open. With the air blasting straight down to my throat making it feel dry and making me feel a little bit crummier.

I did finally fall asleep. But I'll be glad when this cold goes away.

Honey Pie

Ahhh… food. When it’s at it’s worst it can be horrible, when it’s merely half-assed it can sometimes be pretty good, and when it’s delicious it can be a transcendental experience. Honey Pie on KK in Bayview falls into the last category.

Housed in the former home of the craptastic Annona Café, Scott Johnson and partners’ newest creation may have been their best one yet.

Thursday night found the place packed. My dinner companion, this evening played by my lovely wife, got there just as it really started to fill up. We got a table for two next to the window, but the people behind us had to wait.

The menu has a few appetizers, a few dinners and an expansive selection of sandwiches. There is also a huge selection of beers and a very tempting dessert display case; more on that later.

We started with the Pork Stacked Fries appetizer; delicious French fries, covered in a bar-b-qued pulled pork, cheese gravy, jalapeno slices, and bacon. What sounded like it would be merely a mess, turned out to work amazingly well together. The jalapenos tasted fresh and had a good bite, the cheese gravy was much more substantial than any cheese sauce could ever hope to be. Overall, the flavors balanced in an amazing dance of beautiful gastronomic excess, the sweetness of the bar-b-que sauce was countered by the pepper’s sharpness, and fries just taste better smothered in cheese.

My wife had a salad with a Citrus Basil dressing. The small taste I had reminded me of fruity vinaigrette, but significantly more substantial.

Dinner arrived. My wife got the Chicken Pot Pie. It was served in a bowl with a golden brown crust easily covering it. The insides consisted of a creamy gravy with a good amount of dark meat chicken and loads of vegetables.

I got the burger special; two pork and beef patties, with pepper jack cheese, a spicy chipolte aioli, and bacon. The special board specified that the burger had tons of bacon, upon seeing the burger, the statement was almost not hyperbole, there was a lot of bacon. This was of course accompanied by another pile of delicious french fries, plain, but I’m not complaining. I could make a meal of those deep-fried tubers.

Dessert seemed to be necessary to complete the experience. I chose the White Russian Cream Pie, my wife got a piece of Turtle cake. I’m not sure what I expected, but I got exactly what was advertised. A piece of home-made cream pie that tasted just like a White Russian. It was good, but not great. It had a bit too much of a strong alcohol flavor, but it was well made and I might be nit-picking. My wife’s cake was delicious and moist. She enjoyed it very much. By the time she offered me a bite, it was too late. I was filled to the top.

Prices were reasonable. Our dinner ran us a little more than $40. Soda refills were happily given, although the waitress seemed to be pretty busy. The place is small so extra servers might end up running each other over, but everything was well worth the wait.

The menu has a good amount of vegetarian and vegan offerings including the option of
”vegan-a-fying” many of the meat dishes.

The food is not healthy, but it is absolutely delicious. Home-cooked comfort food at it’s finest. Put it on your list of places to stop in at. You won’t be disappointed.

Faith

I have a friend who seems to have made it his goal to become the patron saint of atheism. Well, I suppose atheism doesn’t really have saints, but he is very vocal about his beliefs, or belief in non-belief.

I digress.

I don’t know that I agree with his stand, although I’m not sure I always disagree either. He’s a smart guy and generally provides food for thought.

Although, recently, a Wisconsin man, a father, was convicted of killing his daughter. He killed her by denying her treatment for her undiagnosed diabetes until it killed her. He and his wife and their friends attempted to heal her by praying for her and said that by taking her to a doctor would essentially be placing the doctor before god.

But what this comes down to isn’t about belief. People quite often use belief in rational ways. My father has been having some health problems and my mom is helping him. I know it’s a lot for my mom to deal with and I’m pretty sure she uses her faith in god to help her to cope with things when they get to be a lot to deal with. That’s a good way to use faith to help you in day-to-day life.

The problem with the man that thought prayer would heal his daughter isn’t about faith.

It’s about egotism.

This man felt that his god would stop everything he’s doing to heal his daughter. This guy didn’t believe that possibly by creating a person that could go to medical school and learning how to heal people and become a doctor that god was helping to heal this man’s daughter. He felt that god needed to come down and personally heal his daughter.

I believe in god. But it’s people like this that make me believe that religion is seriously flawed. I realize that a lot of people would strongly disagree with me, and that’s okay. We all have to have our own beliefs. But when people use faith to say that this way or that way is the way that god acts, then they’re putting themselves before god.

The Summer of Books and Movies

And so, here we are, a month into the summer dubbed “The Summer of Books and Movies” and the books continue to beat the crap out of the movies.

The movies have not been bad, not by any means. Indeed, these are the films that the critics of last year heaped mighty piles of praise upon; movies like “Doubt” and “The Wrestler.” Both looked to be outstanding films and I will not sit here and cast dispersions upon them, no sir, not me. These were good films, but, sadly, not great films.

Ever since “The Dark Knight” I feel as if I hold films to a higher standard. “The Dark Knight” was just a comic book movie. That’s how it was apparently judged by those who decide which movies are deserving of praise, which movies deserve to win awards and be forever dubbed the best of the year. Here was a movie that was better than what it was. Sadly, people felt that a movie like “Slumdog Millionaire” was much better. Isn’t that what it means when a film wins best picture? That it’s the best movie made that year?

But the movies that have been heaped with praise do not necessarily deserve the praise they get. Rather, they seem to be the best out of what’s offered.

“Doubt” was good, but not great. Surprising with such a cast. The cinematography was beautiful as well. However, the story was too ambiguous and vague. What should have been a great movie was merely pretty good.

“The Wrestler” was good as well. Not great. Good performances do not make up for a meandering story that never gets resolved. Sure, it’s a character study, but a character study for a character that you can’t empathize with makes for a movie that’s disappointing to watch.

When you want a movie to be great, when it’s only good, that’s just as much of a disappointment.

Thank goodness for books. My current goal is to read all the books by Chuck Palahniuk. I may even read “Fight Club”, because, based on his other books, the book has to be better than the movie. His stories are complex even when they don’t appear to be so, his characters are diverse and layered, and his storytelling style goes down like warm honey.

And unlike Netflix, the library doesn’t charge.

But Is It Art? The Other Side of the Bronzie Debate

Seven Asian tourists stand in a tight group where Water Street meets Wells Street in downtown Milwaukee. They argue back and forth in hushed tones. One, who appears to be the leader of this group, points to the street signs and then to a map. Finally, exasperated, he walks up to a man waiting for the bus. The foreigner approaches the native, a nervous smile on his face and his brows knitted in concentration.

“Fonzie?” The man asks in thickly accented English. As an afterthought he gives a thumbs-up and says “Ayyyyyy.”

The Milwaukeean, at first surprised, grins and points to the Milwaukee River, a block west.

“Thank you.” Says the tourist as he returns to his group and relays the information. The group heads west. When they get to the river they turn, looking north and south along the river. Then they see it. Just south of Wells Street the bronze statue reflects the mid-day sun. The “Bronze Fonz” smiles and gives a perpetual “thumbs-up” to the tourists. They hurry across the street and cluster around the statue of the Milwaukee icon and begin snapping pictures. After a few minutes, a couple in black leather jackets emblazoned with Harley Davidson logos turns the corner. Patiently, they wait for their turn with the statue.

The controversy surrounding the statue had started to become not unlike a bad dream, fading into the collected consciousness. Then, in mid-April of this year, the Milwaukee Common Council decided by a 12-2 vote to approve the Janet Zweig art display along Wisconsin Avenue. That brought the controversy surrounding the “Bronze Fonz” back to the minds of those in the Milwaukee art scene.

The statue, known as the “Bronzie”, has become a polarizing issue amongst many in Milwaukee. While some believe it to be a light-hearted remembrance to that ambassador of coolness, others believe it represents the problems with the art scene in Milwaukee. Probably the most outspoken opponent of the “Bronzie” is Mike Brenner, owner of the former Hot Cakes art gallery.

Former art gallery as in gone. Brenner threatened to shut his gallery down if the Milwaukee Arts Board decided to go through with their plan to bring the Fonz in bronze statue form to Milwaukee. They did and he followed through with his threat. In July he closed the doors of Riverwest’s Hot Cakes gallery forever. Many accused him of being nothing more than the perpetrator of a huge publicity stunt. Others went even further.

“You ever link the Fonz and the Packers to Dahmer again and you’re going to end up like Dahmer.” Said one homophobic and misinformed caller who also called Brenner “gay-boy”. Brenner has posted some of the more “amusing” phone calls on a web site that also features artistic remixes by local artists supportive of Brenner’s cause.

But Brenner doesn’t see it that way.

“I did everything I could to make the community better.” He says as he sips a coffee outside of Riverwest’s Alterra headquarters. His gallery that was just a few blocks away was just a small part of the efforts he made on behalf of the Milwaukee underground art scene. In addition to the gallery, he served as the chair for the Milwaukee Artists Resource Network. MARN was created as a way for artists in the Milwaukee area to network and help each other out. Artists could use the group’s web site to advertise resources, both physical and intellectual, that they were willing to share and trade. Brenner worked with the group for eight years. Funding became harder and harder to come by and Brenner admits he was ill suited for the task of finding more.

“I’m an idea guy, not a do-the-books guy.”

Brenner relates how money continued to get tighter and tighter for him. Eventually he was forced to living in the back of his art gallery, sleeping on air mattresses. He went through seven, returning each one and exchanging it for a new one as they wore out. Things went from bad to worse for Brenner. A lot of the people that came to showings at his gallery would pound down free wine while complaining about its cheapness and criticize the hummus while they filled their pockets with it. Still, Brenner tried to stay open so that he could provide the public with art.

“After a while you don’t get anyone on Tuesdays so I decided to close on Tuesdays. Then people stopped showing up on Wednesdays.” Brenner says. He continued to try though. At one evening’s event when he was to show a film, only one person showed up. She and Brenner ended up having some beers and doing his dishes.

It would seem that Brenner’s decision to close his gallery was based more on financial reasons and less on artistic protest. It seems that way until the subject of Janet Zweig comes up. Zweig was a renowned artist that had created many works including a public display in Minneapolis. Brenner was serving on the Milwaukee Arts Board as the Chair of Public Art when it was decided that Zweig would be selected to create a public art display along Wisconsin Avenue. Besides Brenner, the Milwaukee Arts Board consisted of other notable figures in the Milwaukee artistic community: David Gordon, former Chief Executive Officer of Milwaukee Art Museum, Curtis Carter, founder and former Director of Marquette's Haggerty Museum of Art, Marcia Sehler, Milwaukee Riverwalk Art Curator, and Bob Greenstreet, Milwaukee’s City Architect.

The other half of the board consisted of members of Milwaukee’s Department of Public Works, aldermen, and other more practical and less artistic public figures. Brenner related the story of one alderman that balked at the idea of spending money for the Wisconsin Avenue artwork.

“I wouldn’t spend fifty cents for the Mona Lisa and I’m not going to spend $220,000 for this.” He said in reference to the proposed Zweig display. DPW officials hastily added that the art would be too heavy and would end up in the basements of the buildings along Wisconsin Avenue. Brenner and his allies on the board were disappointed.

Their disappointment quickly turned to surprise and out rage when the other members of the board decided that there would be money to fund the completion of a project started by the cable network, TV Land. The network had built statues of celebrities in other cities: Mary Tyler Moore in Minneapolis and Bob Newhart in Chicago. The network decided to abandon the project before work could start on a statue of the Fonz in Milwaukee. The council decided to build the statue and place it downtown along the Riverwalk.

“They decided to build it right where Solomon Juneau built his trading post.” Brenner says, still appalled by the decision. Many of the bloggers that had been for the statue felt that it did not belong in downtown Milwaukee, somewhere never depicted in “Happy Days,” the sitcom that featured the Fonz.

“Leon’s has a wonderful classic 1950’s neon look, a visually appropriate backdrop for the bronze Fonz. Locate the sculpture there.” Said David Lenz on Mary Louise Schumacher’s JS-Online Art City blog. However this was before the “Bronzie’s” final destination was determined.

Brenner has since decided to turn his attention to brewing beer. He realizes that it may be another ten years before he sees any sort of profit. But he’s quick to add that a brewery is essentially a large warehouse space, the kind that has space for artist studios. As for the Milwaukee art scene, Brenner seems pragmatic but hopeful.

“It won’t be what I want it to be, but it’ll be what it needs to be.”

My Sedaris Review

The assignment seemed like it was going to be easy enough. It had two options. One was to write a review of a live event.

“I could do that.” I thought to myself.

I had been writing restaurant reviews for one of the school papers for nearly two years. It was an assignment that had been foisted on me by the arts and entertainment editor. I was nervous at first, but as it had turned out, it combined two of my passions: writing and eating.

I had gotten a lot of practice writing restaurant reviews and I felt I had gotten pretty good at them. But then, I had the necessary skill set to accurately critique a restaurant: years of cooking experience had made me able to spot the difference between an over-whelmed waitstaff and simply a bad one, and that same work experience had given me the knowledge to identify the difference between bad food and food that might not be good, but had potential.

However, the class assignment required that we went to a live performance. I hadn’t worked as a live performer, musical or otherwise. And unless it was some sort of cooking demonstration, my previous work experience was not going to help me.

Undaunted, I began to keep an eye out for an event to critique.

The combination of being tight-fisted and jaded by the current musical scene made it difficult to find something to see. On top of that, my wife and I had just bought our first house and it was a considerable amount of work. I was hesitant to spend a whole evening out having fun when there was work to be done.

Then it was announced.

My favorite living author, David Sedaris, was coming to town. The satirical humorist had been one of my favorites since a friend had told me some of my writing reminded him of Sedaris. I read one of Sedaris’ books and was hooked. His writing is hilarious and friends that were familiar with his work said it was even better when he read it aloud.

And he was coming to Riverside Theatre.

I asked a friend of mine who was as big of a fan as I was to go. She said she had to do some budget juggling, but she would be able to join me.
A few days later my wife asked me why I hadn’t bought tickets yet.
I told her that I was apprehensive that with all the other expenses, we couldn’t afford it.

“Well, you need to see something for your class, don’t you?” She said.

“Yeah.” I replied. “But the tickets are expensive.”

“We’ll be okay. Just go.”

So I bought the tickets and anxiously waited.

On the night of the show I went to catch the bus and arrived at the theatre an hour early. Eventually my friend Gretchen showed up and we went inside. Our seats were in the balcony so we went upstairs.

When we arrived at the first landing the usher looked at our tickets.

“These are upstairs.” He said, pointing at another set of stairs.
We climbed the stairs to the next landing where another usher was waiting.

“Yeah, you want to go up those stairs.” The second usher said, pointing at another set of stairs.

Finally, when we could go no further, we found our seats in the very last row of the balcony. When Sedaris came out he was a tiny speck, far below on the stage.
He read some of his works, told some stories and took questions from the audience.

I laughed so hard that I cried.


After the show, my friend waited in line with me for an hour so that I could get one of my books signed. I gave her implicit instructions to make sure I didn’t freeze up when it was our turn.

Then we were up.

I don’t remember exactly what I said but I know it came rushing out in a torrential gush of fawning adoration.

Mr. Sedaris took it all in stride. He asked me what I did and I told him that I was going to school to be a writer. I added that his writing was very inspirational to me. He was gracious and recommended some books for me to read. He signed my book, stating that he was looking forward to reading my book.

I floated out to the street on a cloud. My favorite author, besides being talented, was also a really nice guy.

As I thought about writing a review of the show, journalistic ethics reared its ugly head.

There was no way I could write a review of the show that was in any way unbiased.
Sedaris had could have come out onto the stage, belched loudly, and walked back off and I still would have thought it was great. Well, maybe not great, but certainly pretty good.

It just didn’t feel right to write a critique that was little more than fan-worship.



Fortunately, the assignment’s second option was to write a column.