Tom Baker To Do Doctor Who Audio Dramas

Tom Baker has signed on with Big Finish to do Doctor Who audio dramas. This should be fun!

We’re delighted to announce that Tom Baker will be playing the Fourth Doctor in a number of audio adventures for Big Finish, to be released from the beginning of 2012. Storylines and scripts are already at an advanced stage, and we plan to start recording early in the summer.

The first season of six single-disc releases will begin in January 2012, with a second season of seven single-disc releases to follow at a date to be confirmed. There will also be a five-disc box set entitled Doctor Who: The Lost Stories – The Fourth Doctor Box Set... The producers across the Fourth Doctor adventures are Nicholas Briggs and David Richardson.

Caveat Artisan Dildo Buyers

Ladies, take care when buying that hand-crafted, locally-sourced dildo on Etsy. That knowledge might become public.

The controversy began last week when Etsy flipped the switch on People Search as part of its effort to make Etsy feel more like a social network. Now, when users run a search for a person's full name, that user's account will show up in the search results, even if that person is only a buyer.

The problem is that, aside from a thread in Etsy's forums (which is almost entirely used by sellers, not buyers), Etsy has not notified users of the change in privacy settings or policy.

Even if users haven't entered their full names, their profiles are still searchable by username. Even better, people's Etsy profiles and their purchase histories (via the feedback they leave) are beginning to show up under Google results for their names.

Why does this matter? Not everyone wants their purchases to be made public—and some purchases are definitely more private than others. "I just found a woman who's Etsy profile comes up on Google as the 5th link. I was expecting 6 or 7 pages down, but it's on the very first page, right after her online resumes," wrote one concerned user on the Penny Arcade forums. "She signed up a year ago, under the old privacy policy, and hasn't logged in since 2010. And now I know what dildo she uses. Right down to the curvature and coloring."

A different user added later on in the thread, "Found an XXL glass dildo with veins and swirled gold coloring (beautiful piece really) and checked to see if anyone favorited it. Someone did. She also favorited some cosplay cat eat hats [sic] and a bell collar/necklace thing. Then I found her on Facebook."

After you make your anonymous purchase, don't forget the Cthulhu Dildo Cozy.

The Virtue of Standing Up For Yourself

Up at Salon.com Mary Elizabeth Williams writes about this video:





A thin 13-year old kid is picking on Casey, a 16-year old who is "overweight". It's another act in the long schoolyard drama of picking on the fat kid. Casey takes some shit and a few punches before finally having enough whereupon, to paraphrase H. L. Mencken, he spat upon his hands, hoisted the black flag, and began slitting throats. The bully then gets body slammed onto the concrete and at this point his smack talking comes to an end.

Williams points out some denizens of the Net who are championing Casey as an anti-bullying hero. But she is more circumspect and sees a situation where everyone loses.

But life, especially adolescence, doesn't give satisfying, "Karate Kid" style happy endings. The "little twerp" has had his name and whereabouts revealed multiple times on Facebook and elsewhere. And however despicable his actions toward Heynes may have been, there's zero satisfaction in considering that a 13-year-old is now finding himself the target of harassment, threats, and potentially worse. Frankly, if you truly enjoy watching a scrawny 13-year-old boy getting thrown on the pavement like a rag doll, that 13-year-old bully isn't the only cruel one. And there's no satisfaction whatsoever in wondering what kind of retribution potentially awaits Casey Heynes in the schoolyard. That other kid in the video, the one the girl told to back off? At the end of the clip, he's walking around her right down the same corridor, hot on Casey's heels.

Perhaps it's a glass half-empty vs. half-full thing. Williams sees a 13-year old getting body slammed while I see a fat kid standing up for himself. But we're both only seeing a 40 second clip and don't nothing else about these kids or what happened prior to and after the events that were recorded. Still, I think Williams views this whole thing as children being stupid and needing non-violent conflict resolution classes. To my mind, this incident is surely kids being kids but it's also an analogue to the adult world in that Casey seems to have learned a valuable lesson which eludes Williams. Depending on one's view, this isn't simply about a schoolyard square go, it's about standing up for oneself generally.

I've wondered on occasion what I would say if either of The Dulcinea's kids came to me for advice because they were being bullied at school. While I wouldn't tell them that violence should be their first and only option, I would tell them that, if all other avenues of defusing the situation fail, stick up for yourself and start swinging. If either of my stepkids find themselves being bullied and school officials are unwilling or unable to help, I would tell them that giving their best shot at beating the crap out of the bully is OK and that I would stick up for them. Hell, I'd buy a steak for a black eye.

Standing up for yourself is a good lesson for kids to learn because, generally speaking, out here in the adult world, if you won't do it, no one else will. And I don't mean simply throwing punches but standing up to be counted more generally. It's about asserting your own will instead of letting others walk over you and being at their mercy. Sometimes you can pick your own fights but at other times they are picked for you and I'd offer that virtue lies with standing up for yourself instead of always turning the other cheek.

A Motherf***ing Penguin on a Motherf***ing Plane

Forget Disneyland, I Want To Go To Bierwelt

Someday I'll take the family on a vacation to Bierwelt - Beerworld. It's this weird Antoni Gaudi-inspired beer garden at the Kuchlbauer brewery in Abensberg, Germany. Animatronic gnomes!

The Death of the German Brewery Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

A couple weeks ago Slate published Christian DeBenedetti's "Brauereisterben" or "brewery death". It's an interesting piece that begins with a country ton of bad news.

According to German federal statistics released in late January, German brewing has dropped to less than 100 million hectoliters of production for the first time since reunification in 1990. (That's less than half of the United States' annual output.) The same study revealed that consumption dropped almost 3 percent last year alone, to 101.8 liters per person per year, and that it's down about one-third overall since the previous generation. The number of breweries in the country has also dropped—by about half over the last few decades to around 1,300.

It goes on to list various reasons for this. The German beer industry blames the low birth rate. There are simply less customers. On the other hand, statistics show that German youth go for "mixed and energy drinks like Bacardi's Rigo and Austria's amped-up export, Red Bull, whose sales surged 18 percent in Germany during 2009". And of course the Reinheitsgebot comes in for a thrashing as it, or rather its reputation, limits what brewers brew and what German drinkers perceive to be beer worth drinking, i.e. – pils, pils, and more pils.

Comparing Germany and America with regards to beer is tricky. OK, so the Germans produce less than half of what we do. But that's misleading because Germany has a bit more than a quarter of our population. (Roughly 311,000,000 to 82,000,000.) DeBenedietti also says that Berlin had "some 700 breweries in the early 19th century" when Ron Pattinson's European Beer Guide says that "82 breweries operated in Berlin in 1800 and 42 by 1816". Were observers decrying the decline of the German beer industry in 1816 and citing a nearly 50% decline in the number of breweries in Berlin as proof?

To me the situation over there seems to have a bit in common with the beer scene here. Craft beer nerds like to use blinders and view everything from a craft perspective. The latest statistics I could find show that overall beer sales in America are going down. The past 2 or 3 years they've gone down 2.5% per annum or thereabouts. And craft beers account for well below 10% of all beer sold both in volume and by dollars. Yet beer nerds like to emphasize that the craft segment is growing at a pretty healthy clip.

A lot of this comes down to which numbers you want to emphasize. Step back and look at America. We have 1 brewery for roughly every 183,000 people. Overall sales are trending downwards at a pace of 2.5% or so per year. Germany has 1 brewery for every 63,000 people give or take and its beer consumption slipped by 3% last year. To me, Germany comes out pretty well here yet the consensus is that it is in a tailspin while America is the world's beer leader. Again, it comes down to emphasis. The American craft market is doing really well but how helpful is it to compare that to the performance of the German equivalents of Bud and Miller?

While I'm not trying to say that the German beer industry isn't in trouble, I'm just not sure that DeBenedetti does a good job of explaining why it is so because he looks at Germany as a whole and compares it to a very small segment of the American beer industry which is doing well. I found an interesting comment over at the Beer Advocate forums about this issue by someone from Germany (Regensburg?) who says:

The only breweries that have closed around here in the past years are those where either the brewer reached retirement age and he couldn't find someone to take over the business or where the brewer went bankrupt because he couldn't afford the many upgrades required by European Union law.

All this stuff about the Reinheitsgebot and tied houses misses the point, it's been like that for centuries after all. In Germany there is no beer nerd scene. People won't pay more than 2.50 EUR for 0.5 Liters in a pub and the overwhelming consensus is that Belgian beer should only be sold with a Death Head Warning sticker.

Pretty much everyone over there seems to be stuck in a rut – brewers and consumers alike. Brewers aren't innovating and consumers aren't making much of a demand that they do so. And there's the aspect of everyone being hamstrung by the Reinheitsgebot tradition. At least that's what I get from all this. But just as the craft beer segment in America bucks the overall trend here of declining beer sales, I am unclear whether something similar holds true in Germany. Yes, I get the overall picture but are there any bright spots?

And it isn't just Germany. Belgium's beer culture is being "threatened", according to homebrewing godfather Charlie Papazian while James Watt of Scotland's BrewDog brewery recently said "The UK brewing scene really bored us. Everything is constrained by tradition and anything interesting is strangled by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), which is almost single-handedly responsible for holding back innovation in British brewing. The beer culture we grew up with is stuffy, boring and mundane, with most UK brewers making similar boring 4 percent bitters all using the same malt and hops."

Yet there's hope. The final part of DeBenedetti's piece notes some positive developments in Germany.

Starting in 2007, Oliver (an American brewer)began collaborating with German brew master Hans-Peter Drexler of Schneider (a famous Reinheitsgebot-loyal Bavarian brewery that opened in 1872) on a pair of brews, including a strong German weizenbock dry-hopped with American flowers. The beer was highly rated, especially in the United States, and the reception in Germany was more or less kind, though the brew wasn't made widely available…Drexler and Oliver's second joint effort (a hefeweizen, or traditional Bavarian unfiltered wheat beer) was also dry-hopped with local German Saphir hops from Kelheim post-fermentation, imparting floral and citrusy aromas and flavors practically alien to local palates.

Even without American assistance, Germans are pushing the hops envelope. Wernecker Bierbrauerei in Werneck, Germany (some 40 miles West of Bamberg), released Hopfen-Fluch in 2010, a hoppy, American-style riff on the IPA (India pale ale). Wernecker brewery claims it has doubled in size over the last decade or so, and that sales accelerated 20 percent in 2007, bucking the bleak national trends.

Hopfen-Fluch and the Oliver-Schneider collaboration beers would likely pass muster under the Reinheitsgebot, but change could come with or without the purity business in tow. In Bamberg, Weyermann Malting supplies specialty roasted grains in 80 varieties for the global craft-brewing industry. The company's small, pilot brewery has turned out cherry and pumpkin ales (definitely not Reinheitsgebot-approved) as well as barley wines (strong English ales) and even "imperial" American-style ales (which might pass inspections, if they existed, depending on carbonation and clarifying methods), all with the intention of "showing the world, and German brewers, what is possible," says Sabine Weyermann, spokesperson for the 130-year-old family-held firm.

Gasthaus-Brauerei Braustelle in Cologne, a nano-brewery that opened in 2002, is also defying national and local traditions with increasing chutzpah: braumeister Peter Esser's latest beers include a dunkel (dark) seasoned with rosemary, an American-style IPA (called Fritz IPA), a 5.8 percent ale infused with hibiscus flowers (Pink Panther) and what's thought to be the first American-style imperial stout ever brewed in Germany (Freigeist Caulfield).

It took a while before significant numbers of American beer drinkers started quaffing IPAs and barrel-aged stouts so it's only fair to assume that German drinkers will take time to accommodate very hoppy brews and those that are not Reinheitsgebot-compliant.

Hiawatha Doing Well and Suggestions For Madison Metro

While Gov. Walker's union busting is front and center these days, I was reminded today of how he 86'd making Madison a terminus on Amtrak's Hiawatha line. According to the Wisconsin DoT, the Hiawatha did very well last year with nearly 793,000 riders, a nearly 7% increase over 2009. Perhaps my stepkids will see the day when Wisconsin gets high-speed rail.

To see what we're going to miss, here's a video a 14-year old kid took of his trip from Chicago to Milwaukee on the Hiawatha.



Republicans here in Wisconsin are going after RTAs and the budget bill would eliminate lots of funding for Madison Metro so I've been thinking about what the future of bus service here in Madison holds. I stumbled on this article about how the buses in Seoul are being painted to reflect where they go.

Blue buses travel long distances on major arterial roads, serving more than 2 districts, and run in median bus lanes when they get close to the centre of the city (this video shows a blue bus entering a separated median lane). Green buses operate as feeder buses to the 8 lines on the subway system and are run by private companies. Red buses are express routes with limited stops connecting major suburban towns to the central city. And yellow buses are circular routes that travel between the major destinations in the central city.

This got me thinking about Madison's buses. No, I don't think a color-coding scheme would be appropriate here but the article also mentions a couple other bits that were interesting.

But the addition of a route numbering system that actually has explicit meaning is something every transit system should adopt. First they divided Seoul into 8 numbered zones, starting at 0 in the downtown core and giving the surrounding zones numbers 1 through 7.

Then they used these zones as part of the route numbers. Blue buses have three-digit route numbers. The first number indicates the origin zone and the second number the destination zone, with the last number the bus ID number. So if you encounter bus #048, for example, you know it travels from downtown (zone 0) to zone 4. Red buses put a 9 in front to indicate that these are suburban routes, while yellow buses have only two numbers, since they stay within the same zone.

Is there a method to the madness of Metro's system of assigning numbers to bus routes? If there is, it must be something like north to south routes are multiples of a prime number or something like that. Well, I do see at least some. Routes in the 80s are campus circulators while those in the 70s go to Middleton. Some other numbers more or less cluster around a transfer point as a terminus. But if you look at a ride guide, well over half the pages are devoted to routes 1-39. Can a numbering system be put in place which gives the rider some idea of where the bus goes?

Another neat thing they do with buses is this:





That sign on the side lists major destinations. I think this would be helpful. Many people ask if a bus goes to the Square or not and this would answer their question quickly. Does it go to East Towne Mall? Well, that would be right on the side of the bus for you to read as it approaches. And I'll repeat what I have written previously: Metro buses should have a map posted inside showing the entire route and listing major streets and destinations.

Speaking of bus numbers, why can't Madison Metro simplify things by not switching route numbers on weekends? Take bus number 3. On weekends it becomes 7. It runs essentially the same route so why confuse things with a different number?

A couple other gripes.

Last weekend I need to get from downtown to the High Noon Saloon so I needed a #6 bus. I was surprised to find that this route runs only once an hour on weekends. This is the only bus in the whole system that services the entirety of East Washington. At least during the week there are other buses that run between the Square and Milwaukee Street but on weekends the 6 is basically all you have. Why such poor frequency?

Lastly I'll say that I wish buses ran a bit later on Fridays and Saturdays. The Wisconsin Film Festival is coming up and I've got tickets for some shows that run late making it impossible or nearly so for me to catch a bus home afterwards. Part of the problem is that Metro considers Saturdays to be a lazy day when people don't do anything and so they pare services down. Now I can understand Sundays and holidays having pretty abbreviated service but why Saturday? Sure, you can adjust the schedule to reflect a lack of rush hours but it's a big shopping day and a day when lots of people go out for entertainment which includes staying out late. So why is it treated like a Sunday?

Of course, it's unlikely much is going to happen to bus service here in Madison for years besides fares increasing and service cuts. In the meantime, join the Madison Area Bus Advocates to prepare for a more public transit-friendly future.

So Long Dogfish Head

Dogfish Head have officially announced that they are pulling out of Wisconsin. From the company's blog:

The distributors in the states we are pulling distribution from (Tennessee, Indiana, Wisconsin and Rhode Island) have already been notified of our decision. If your favorite pubs and beer outlets are no longer able to obtain Dogfish products, we are sorry that we are no longer able to supply them. Thanks for understanding and we are hopeful for your ongoing support.

Fans will have to make a run to the border, I guess.

Beer: Excise Taxes, Expansion, and Boycotts

The U.S. Senate will be mulling over a bill to reduce the beer excise tax for craft brewers.

Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) today introduced legislation to reduce the beer excise tax for America’s small brewers.

Currently, a small brewer that produces less than two million barrels of beer per year is eligible to pay $7.00 per barrel on the first 60,000 barrels produced each year. This legislation will reduce this rate to $3.50 per barrel, giving our nation’s smallest brewers approximately $19.9 million per year to expand and generate jobs. This change helps approximately 1,525 breweries nationwide.

Currently, once production exceeds 60,000 barrels, a small brewer must pay the same $18 per barrel excise tax rate that the largest brewer pays while producing more than 100 million barrels. This legislation will lower the tax rate to $16 per barrel on beer production above 60,000 barrels, up to two million barrels, providing small brewers with an additional $27.1 million per year that can be used to support significant long-term investments and create jobs by growing their businesses on a regional or national scale.

For now this is still just a bill but I can't imagine that the idea of lowering taxes would have a problem in the House. If it passes, would beer prices go down? I mean, when WI state Rep. Terese Burceau tried to raise the state beer excise tax, small brewers generally came out against it and, from my recollections, said that the cost increase would be passed onto consumers. Would the reverse hold as well?

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Canning is the latest trend in craft beer and I now read that Sprecher is going that route in an interview with Jeff Hamilton, the company's president. I'm pretty agnostic on the issue at this point. Here's an overview of the benefits and problems of each packaging method. I only hope that craft brewers don't devolve into a stupid marketing war where they try to pawn off cans with mouths wider than normal as a reason to buy their product.
Other news is that they've increased lagering capacity and now offer beer-flavored potato chips. Does any other Wisconsin brewery sell food products made with their beer? Is there a New Glarus mustard, for instance? Also interesting was that the brewery's founder, Randy Sprecher, now lives in California part-time.

Are any of their seasonal sodas available here in Madison?

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With all the protesting the past few weeks and now calls for boycotts of companies that contributed to Scott Walker's campaigns, I found this bit interesting.

The Midwest Beer Collective's 18 February news roundup had positive comments about the protesters. A commenter named "Jim Klisch" left the following comment:

Where is the money coming from to pay the state workers? It’s not like they are hurting. They will keep their jobs which is much better then[sic] the private sector. Stick to beer and leave your sophomoric politics out or yur blog.

Jim Klisch founded the Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee but I have no idea if it was he that actually left the comment. For fun, I looked to see if he had donated any money to Walker but found no evidence of that.

So, if you're a craft beer drinker and want to engage in boycotts of Walker supporters, would you consider boycotting Lakefront if you knew that this comment was from the company's founder?

And lastly, a big fuck you to the author of the member of the Midwest Beer Collective who wrote the new roundup mentioned above for writing "seriously, we get it Cap Brewery, you don’t like to make flavorful beer, but cans?"

Doctor Who: Grave Matter by Justin Richards

Despite having been a Doctor Who fan since the early 1980s, it was only recently that I read one of the DW novels from the time between the show going off the air in 1989 until its resurrection in 2005. During that time Virgin Publishing and then BBC Books published dozens of novels featuring all eight Doctors. I lost my virginity here to the BBC Past Doctor book Grave Matter, a Sixth Doctor story featuring Peri that takes place after the TV story "Vengeance on Varos".

The story begins with the eldritch thoughts of someone unknown. This person is locked away in a room but eventually finds a way to freedom. The cell is in a mansion and the escape is noticed by a butler who reports it to the lord and lady of the house.

We are then introduced to our heroes who land in a fog-shrouded area. They are on the island of Dorsill, just off the coast of England. Unable to see through the pea soup, Peri nearly walks off a cliff but is saved by a man in tattered clothing with missing fingers. He directs The Doctor and Peri to the village nearby. Upon entering, they encounter a funeral procession. Just as in Dungeons & Dragons information is to be found at the local pub. This scene is just like the one in An American Werewolf in London with the rustic locals wearily eyeing the strangers.

With no electricity and handmade clothing, The Doctor places their arrival somewhere in the Victorian era but clues betray that notion, including the village's latest addition, Dave Madsen, the local doctor who doesn't speak like a Victorian. But, unlike everyone else, he is friendly. The funeral was for Bill Neville who was part of the crew aboard a fishing boat that went under. His was the only body recovered. Eventually the pub's owner, Trefoil, opens up as well. He has a daughter, Liz, who is trading googly eyes with Madsen.

Indeed, we meet many of Dorsill's residents in the opening chapters of the book. In addition to those above, there's Mrs. Tattleshall, the village gossip hound, the mysterious Sir Edward, and Mike, Bill Neville's brother who is quite distraught and angry over his brother's death.

At one point Peri follows Sir Edward after he leaves the pub only to witness him chatting on a cell phone as he wanders down the lane. It isn't the Victorian era after all. Instead it is the 21st century. Dorsill was previously owned by a trust but was purchased by a former native named Christopher Sheldon who was thought to have missed out on his family's fortune. So where did the money come from? And where has he gone?

Without wanting to spoil too much, I will note that there is something afoot at the Sheldon manor – something which involves the dead coming back to life.

Grave Matter was a blast. I've read that many of the Virgin novels explore The Doctor's past and build up a lot of the mythology behind the character. This story as well as the other BBC Past Doctor novels I've read do very little of that kind of thing. Grave Matter took the tried and true DW formula and stretched it out a bit to make a novel but otherwise kept the show's conventions intact. Author Justin Richards does a lot of misdirection here which kept me guessing. For instance, was it the Victorian era with a mysterious anachronism or was it really the 21st century? A few characters are hiding something and Richards does a good job of letting the truth out and letting it out slowly so that one revelation doesn't everything and give the game away. You know that Peri is going to be in danger but by whom? Is it Mike and his strange animosity towards her? Or perhaps the real peril is from Sir Edward.

Richards kept me guessing and I liked that. I also enjoyed the mood he set. The islanders who revel in the old ways are largely cut off from the mainland and Dorsill is always covered in fog. The Doctor is his usual arrogant self while Peri is pretty much Peri although she does show a bit more initiative here than the character did on TV. One nice thing about the novel format is that it allowed Richards a bit more breathing room. There were no time constraints so events and storylines could unfold naturally instead of being hurried to fit a TV schedule. In addition the format gave room for more characters and that means more encounters which adds to the mystery as well as to the peril quotient for our heroes.

Grave Matter is a good old gothic-y Doctor Who horror story in the vein of Horror of Fang Rock with a bit of The Curse of Fenric thrown in for good measure.

Walker Channels Yahweh

Matt Rothschild of The Progressive has a blog post which concerns a speech Scott Walker gave to the Christian Businessmen’s Committee here in Madison. In the talk our governor lays out how Yahweh pulls his strings.

Walker said that God has told him what to do every step of the way, including about what jobs to take, whom to marry, and when to run for governor.

When he had first met his wife, he said, “That night I heard Christ tell me, ‘This is the person you’re going to be with.’ ”

He said he was trusting and obeying God when he took a job at IBM and then at the Red Cross. ““Lord, if this is what you want, I’ll try it,” he said. It was all about “trust and obey.”

Oh great. We have an evangelical who has voices in his head telling him what to do for governor.

So what would Jesus do?

Well, it seems that he might do whatever Evangelicals don't do. A recent poll reveals:

White Evangelical Christians are the group least likely to support politicians or policies that reflect the actual teachings of Jesus. It is perhaps one of the strangest, most dumb-founding ironies in contemporary American culture. Evangelical Christians, who most fiercely proclaim to have a personal relationship with Christ, who most confidently declare their belief that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, who go to church on a regular basis, pray daily, listen to Christian music, and place God and His Only Begotten Son at the center of their lives, are simultaneously the very people most likely to reject his teachings and despise his radical message.

Jesus unambiguously preached mercy and forgiveness. These are supposed to be cardinal virtues of the Christian faith. And yet Evangelicals are the most supportive of the death penalty, draconian sentencing, punitive punishment over rehabilitation, and the governmental use of torture. Jesus exhorted humans to be loving, peaceful, and non-violent. And yet Evangelicals are the group of Americans most supportive of easy-access weaponry, little-to-no regulation of handgun and semi-automatic gun ownership, not to mention the violent military invasion of various countries around the world. Jesus was very clear that the pursuit of wealth was inimical to the Kingdom of God, that the rich are to be condemned, and that to be a follower of Him means to give one's money to the poor. And yet Evangelicals are the most supportive of corporate greed and capitalistic excess, and they are the most opposed to institutional help for the nation's poor -- especially poor children. They hate anything that smacks of "socialism," even though that is essentially what their Savior preached. They despise food stamp programs, subsidies for schools, hospitals, job training -- anything that might dare to help out those in need. Even though helping out those in need was exactly what Jesus urged humans to do. In short, Evangelicals are that segment of America which is the most pro-militaristic, pro-gun, and pro-corporate, while simultaneously claiming to be most ardent lovers of the Prince of Peace.

The recall can't start soon enough.

International Fest 2011

The 30th Annual International Festival was this past weekend at the Overture Center. It seemed to be well-attended to my mind. Usually the crowds thin out a bit as the afternoon goes on but crowds were pretty steady with many protestors carrying their signs with them.

The Swiss Alphorn Group from New Glarus started things off as they always do.





When they had finished, a woman came out onto the stage and greeted everyone. She began by thanking them for attending but quickly got caught up in the events up the street at the Capitol. The Wisconsin Arts Board is looking at major budget cuts under Gov. Walker's budget and the woman noted this and also that the International Festival is a free event due, in part, to funding from the WAB. While we were given no specifics on what the cuts might do to the festival, she implored everyone to go out and protest at some point during the day. At this point she got all fired up and her voice grew louder. Her message was that artists work and that they are not freeloaders. So go out and tell Walker that you appreciate the arts and what they bring into your lives.

An unexpected outburst but not at all surprising and one that got a thunderous round of applause.

When the festivities got going again, we were treated to the Zhong Yi Kung Fu Association doing a Chinese lion dance.





It's great how the lions fan out into the crowd nipping at the head of the occasional child.





Outside I caught a phalanx of protestors from the medical profession marching down State Street.





I tried to catch the Tania Tandias Flamenco dancers but the Playhouse was already full and they were only letting people in as others left. So I went to hear the Madison Männerchor, the oldest German singing organization in Wisconsin and the second oldest in the nation, doncha know.





Oddly enough, it was only when they had gotten about ¾ of the way through their performance that they finally did a drinking song.





After this I went to see the Taiwan Puppet Troupe. I saw them for the first time last year and wanted to catch their act again. Madison needs more puppets. I am jealous of Chicago when I go down to the Loop and see the Puppet Bike. Anyway, the Taiwan troupe do a couple tales from Taiwanese folklore and they're a hoot. Especially the tiger that eats the girl…

Here's Wojciech Czapliński of the Polish klezmer band KlezmaFour. He plays the clarinet and is the de facto band leader. He was at the table of the Polish Heritage Club hawking tickets for that night's concert at the High Noon Saloon and CDs.





KlezmaFour were to have local purveyors of klezmer Yid Vicious open for them and I caught a good chunk of their set. I spied Anna Purnell of Chick Singer and Reptile Palace Orchestra fame cutting a rug.





I took a break and caught a couple numbers by Charanga Agoza who put on a great Latin groove.





Then it was back upstairs to catch the guys in KlezmaFour do a number before Yid Vicious finished things off.





These guys were incredible. They got things moving and I saw Anna pull off her sweatshirt and hat and get down.

While I'd hoped to have more photos, my camera proved to be a pain. I couldn't get the flash to work for some reason and I suspect I have to get the timer thingy to stop flashing. Might be time to get a new camera. Either that or read the manual.

I would hate to see the International Fest go away. I'd be willing to pay a fee to get in but I'm not sure how charging would change the tenor of the thing. It would certainly throw off the informal nature of it where families can just walk in off the street to see what's happening without making a commitment. Even Adam Smith saw a role for government in providing public works so let's hope Walker's budget doesn't gut the state's commitment to the arts.

And where was the Indian fry bread this year?

"Please identify the one that is ausgezeichnet" - Werner Herzog on The Simpsons

I can't figure out how to imbed a clip instead of the whole episode so fast forward to 10:18.

Hitler Finds Out About Prank Call to Governor Walker

Dem. Representative Nick Milroy Gets Taken Down at Capitol

Unfortunately I can't get the embedding to work but you can watch law enforcement take down Rep. Nick Milroy as he tries to enter the Capitol to retrieve some items from his office here.

Why Dummies Want To Take Wisconsin

The Troll Hunters at Wisconsin Film Festival!

Uff da! The Troll Hunters, which I expressed an interest in here, will be shown on Friday night at the Wisconsin Film Festival. Should be fun. Look for your humble narrator and Jesse Russell at the screening.

I don't recognize many of the other films playing but I am glad to see that A Somewhat Gentle Man and Viva Riva! will be shown. Oh, and I have read about Mozart's Sister. And it's odd to see Marwencol returning after having screened at the Orpheum already. Perhaps it got lined up before that.

Lastly, there's an 80's horror series too. Lots of schlocky goodness.

ADDENDUM: Yes, Auruora will play just as I prognosticated.

Radio Free Albemuth Trailer

This looks like it could be good. Nice to see a PKD adaptation not starring Nicholas Cage.


Radio Free Albemuth movie trailer
Uploaded by blankytwo. - Classic TV and last night's shows, online.

Dinner With Basil, Sybil, and Manuel

If anyone wants to know what to get me for my birthday, then hire these folks for a party.





These are the actors from Australia's Interactive Theatre's Faulty Towers: The Dining Experience. For a fee they'll come to the restaurant of your choice and put on a show in the tradition of Fawlty Towers. Here's an account of their performance in Edinburgh.

If you ask for more salt, you will get a bundle of salt in paper (salt and pepper). Then Basil – whose manhandling of Manuel has won newspaper plaudits for the most convincing random comedy violence – stabs him with a fork, with much punning along "you fork me" lines. Manuel, asked to wait on the tables, stands in the centre of a set of diners and does his matador impression. Meanwhile, there is plenty of running through the restaurant when Manuel mishears the word "sapphire".

Sybil, amid ear-piercing shouts of "Ba-sil!" tells us that she brought back her shoes from Spain – and got a much better bargain than Basil, who brought back the hapless waiter.

Oldest Beer to Be Re-Brewed

Somebody get Ron Pattinson on the phone! Some beer recovered from a shipwreck dating back to the early 19th century has been recovered and it's in a lab being analyzed so some true beer geeks can replicate it.

In July 2010, a Baltic Sea shipwreck dated between 1800 to 1830 yielded many bottles of what is thought to be the world's oldest champagne.

Five of the bottles later proved to be the oldest drinkable beer yet found.

The local government of the Aland island chain where the wreck was found has now commissioned a scientific study to unpick the beer's original recipe.

The brew has already been sampled by four professional beer tasters.

"They said that it did taste very old, which is no surprise, with some burnt notes. But it was quite acidic - which could mean there's been some fermenting going on in the bottle and with time it's become acid," said Annika Wilhelmson of the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT).

VTT has now been commissioned to get to the bottom of the sunken beer's recipe.

"We're going to try to see if we can find any living yeast or other microbial cells, because that would be very interesting with respect to reproducing the beer," Dr Wilhelmson explained.