Paint The Town

St. Paddy's Day

When Claire and I were sleeping until noon and enjoying what we could of the sights and sounds (and shops) of bitterly cold Edinburgh, you guys in Mil-town were gearing up for the big Irish gig – Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul played Thursday night at the Northern Lights Theater in the Potawatomi Casino (1721 N. Canal St.).  I’ve listened to her stuff throughout the years and have always enjoyed her work – a bit off the “Waddya do w’a drunken sailor” path, if you know what I mean . . . and I saw that freakin’ Nikki Giovanni read at UWM that evening as well!!!!!!  Jeez!  How cool is that?!  She is such an unbelievably amazing activist/outspoken/revolutionary (and beautifully eloquent to boot) poet – argh!  I’m really bummed I missed her – a MUST in the curriculum of any modern lit course . . . I’ll bet she was incredible . . . okay okay I’ll get over it  . . .

As we traveled back to the Emerald Isle on the party plane – seriously, what were we thinking?! – my fellow O’ Milwaukeeans were merely hours away from what I have come to call “amateur night”, but it seems like the tradition is just as strong – if not more so – in the auld sod.  According to the locals, over half a MILLION people pour into Dublin for their St. Patrick’s Day parade.   I awoke on St. Paddy’s morning to the faint sound of Irish music and – it was like Christmas as a kid – I rushed to the window and threw open the curtains, “Did St. Patrick come?!”.  Then reality sank in as I began to realize that we had perhaps gotten ourselves into a bit of a bind – i.e. thousands of people milling about (some more intoxicated and projectile-vomitous than others), while we’re trying to get to our little café theatre performance at Bewley’s.  And it was – mayhem.  Absolute chaos – the garda (police) shouting, “Move along, there’s nothin’ to see” (umm, it’s a parade?!) and I would like the head of the person/people selling WHISTLES (I think they sold them on a sliding alcohol scale – the drunker you were, the cheaper you could get one). 

So by the time we made our way to the café, Claire and I were eternally grateful for the respite from the festivities to say the least.  We settled in and welcomed the warm bowls of watery soup that were included in our ticket price for the performance of Sean O’Casey’s comedy, The End of the Beginning . It was brilliant.  Such a perfect way to spend your lunch hour – a Laurel & Hardy-style farce set in rural Ireland. The actors, Brendan Conroy, John Olohan and Dairine Ni Dhonnchu, were absolutely brilliant (I kept thinking, “Their accents are fantastic” – ha!) and they even played guitar!  There was quite a bit of physical comedy involved, so this really was no simple piece, but they pulled it off seamlessly on a tiny, meticulously detailed stage.  Everything from a sheepshead mounted on the wall to a cool simulated hearth and gramophone was included in the country house set.  And there was even some blood and gore thrown in for kicks – god I love the Irish. 

Unfortunately, it was over only too quick and back out we were thrown into the madding crowd.  Stopped into a couple overcrowded pubs (god help you if you’re agoraphobic in this town) and made our way back to the hotel bar, where we had our last pint in Dublin with our Belgian buddy Jan and the Dublin Fire Brigade   - WILD.  Short, but oh so sweet (the vacation, not the pint) . . .

Meanwhile, back in Beertown,  Brian Friel's play, "Philadelphia Here I Come" was showing at the Hefter Center (3271 N. Lake Drive), which is not only a fabulous work by one of my favorite Irish playwrights, but the venue is STUNNING.  Really beautiful place to see a wonderful play.  I also noticed that the UWM Cinema (2200 E. Kenwood Ave.) was screening a new Irish film, "Cowboys and Angels" (for FREE!!), which looked interesting and again, provided some shelter from the masses of Paddy-Mc-Drunken-Fools roaming the streets in search of green beer (yuk!). Anyway, I hope y'all had a good St. Pat's Day and I'll fill you in with more exciting adventures I encountered upon my triumphant return to the States.  Slainte.    

Rockin' out in Edinburgh

It seemed like we had just arrived in Dublin when Claire and I were headed on a plane to Edinburgh, Scotland to visit her friends Alistair and Robin, some Madison-area transplants to what my friend Graeme calls “God’s country.”  Again, despite some bitterly cold winds and freezing rain, we managed to see a bit of the city and even drove up the road BACKWARDS to catch a foggy view of the surrounding mountains (“You can’t see them, but . . .”). After warming up a bit at their pad, we headed out to sample some of the local fare.  The first place we hit, The Hollyrood, which featured not only a fantastic jukebox, but an exhibition by underground artist, Gerry Gapinski – “Communiqué One: Le Illustration.” According to the accompanying blurb on the wall, it is “an amazing project that explores myth, communication and form.”  The show is comprised of fragments of a larger narrative entitled, “Le Mort de Gunter Prague.”  Afterwards, we hit a couple other places and I proceeded to watch helplessly as my bank card was eaten by the foreign devils that possessed this particular ATM machine.  A couple pints and some hearty Scottish food later, I was a bit less rattled and fairly fatigued, so off we went to sleep off our jet lag (from the States, not Dublin) on Alistair and Robin’s futon/couch for the next 12 hours.  Whew . . . 

No sleep til Dublin!!!!!!

Monday morning – got in to the auld sod in one piece and hopped a double-decker (god those things are so cool) headed into the city center.  After we checked into our amazing accommodations at the Gresham Hotel (the Pfister of Dublin), courtesy of my beloved fiancé, Stuart (thank you!!), I ran out the door and down the block to the Gate Theater to see if there were any available tickets for Brian Friel’s Faith Healer, starring RALPH FIENNES!!!!!!!!!!!!!  As luck would have it, the show was sold out for the entire run, unless of course, we felt like sitting outside in the cold – a la Grateful Dead show – “I need a miracle, man . . .” - to see if there were any spare tickets available at the last minute.  Seeing as though we had a little over 24 hours in town, I decided against this option and chose to show Claire around my old stomping grounds.   An afternoon of eating, drinking and shopping (my strongest talents) ensued and we ended up in Bewley’s Café to warm ourselves from the unusually bitter elements.  It turned out that they are still running their lunchtime theater series upstairs and, after chatting with director Alan King, we reserved a couple spots for Friday’s performance of Sean O’Casey’s comedy, The End of the Beginning.  A welcome relief from the St. Paddy’s Day madness, I’m thinking.  So when we were meeting up with my Dublin-native friend Dermot that evening for a pint and a chat at Dublin’s brew-pub The Porterhouse (you know, they DO make more than just Guinness), Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley was playing a “Ten Buck Show” at the Pabst Theater here in Brew City.  Wah!  I LOVE her!  Well, I guess that was ANOTHER excuse to drown my sorrows in another pint of quadruple stout (one of Michael Collins’ faves, I guess). Hope you had fun without me.  More adventures abroad to follow . . .    

Ireland and Scotland Ahoy!

Saturday my friend Claire and I drove down to Chicago and took advantage of the Park/Sleep/Fly program offered at many hotels near major airports.  It couldn’t have been more convenient – for the price of a room, you can park your car for up to two weeks at a time and get shuttle service to and from O’Hare.  Sweet.  Downside – I missed the St. Patrick's Day Parade in downtown Milwaukee.  To be honest, in light of our upcoming trip to Dublin for the real deal, I can’t say I lost any sleep over it, but I hear it’s quite the event to catch, featuring everything from bagpipers to Irish dancers - and St. Patrick himself!  You also can’t beat the $1 parking at Grand Avenue. 

I was, however, somewhat bummed by the fact that I had to give away my ticket to see Belle & Sebastian at the Riverside Theater (116 W. Wisconsin Ave.).  The New Pornographers – another band I wanted to see - opened for them and it sounded like a really great show.  On the other hand, Claire and I were going to be visiting B&S’s homeland (Scotland), so again, I didn’t feel THAT bad about it, but still . . .

I also wouldn’t have minded catching The Etiquette, Wolfbite and the Mood Swings Saturday night at the Mad Planet (533 E. Center St.). In fact, you could get in with your Belle & Sebastian ticket stub for $5.  God I love this town.  So if any of you caught these or some other cool events as we slept away the evening in Rolling Meadows, IL (we called it an early night in anticipation of our trans-Atlantic flight and ensuing jet lag), please rub my nose in it and let me know what a great time you had . . .   

Furthermore, the fun continued on Sunday night at the Eagles Club (2401 W. Wisconsin Ave.), which featured Ben Folds, whom I love.  So while we were 35,000 feet over the water, eating our third in-flight meal and watching second-rate movies, Ben Folds was jamming out on the piano (Note: he does a KILLER cover of “Careless Whispers”).  Again, please make me jealous and let me know how he was and if he’s coming back soon (I hope I hope I hope) . . .   

Matt & Ben

Friday the 10th I caught the second-last show of Bialystock & Bloom’s final season, Matt & Ben – a two-woman farce about the Good Will Hunting duo’s overnight success.  This was also the last theater review I will be writing for OnMilwaukee.com who, after much thought and discussion, feel that theater reviews were “obviously not their focus.”  Both of these events pain me considerably.  Sound off moment:  It seems to me that innovative theater companies and critical dialogue about the arts in this town have reached an all-time low.  I feel that we have gone the way of short-attention-span, sexy, colorful preview route, instead of generating discussions about what is (or isn’t) going in Milwaukee’s art scene.  Sigh.  So now we are limited to comfortable dramatic pieces in the safe environs of our corporate-sponsored venues and, aside from Damien Jaques, who seems to be one of the few remaining voices of theater criticism in this town (don’t get me started on THAT one), we are left with a few thumbs-up/thumbs-down blurbs in the Shepherd Express.  Somebody please correct me if I’m wrong here, so we can direct those who are interested in actively exchanging views on the arts in Milwaukee to the appropriate party.  End of sound off. 

So let me climb down from my soap box and resume my two cents about Matt and Ben.  As much as I welcome and embrace provocative theater in Milwaukee, this work unfortunately illustrated some of the risks and downsides to choosing something a bit off the beaten track.  Great idea, great premise – it had its comic moments, and the set was meticulously designed to recreate Ben Affleck’s South Boston bachelor pad.  On the other hand, the dumb-and-dumber schtick between the two characters lost its novelty after approximately five minutes.  If I had to choose between them, I would say Kelly Marie Hoglund was the more dynamic of the two actors, portraying an excellent Gwyneth Paltrow and whipping out a pretty impressive cockney accent at one point.  Jacqueline Davies (Matt), was more the straight man to goofball Ben, which didn’t give her as many laughs, but she just felt fairly impersonal and her performance seemed somewhat flat.  On top of that, there was no intermission, which made the piece seem even longer and more dragged out.  The pair’s Oscar acceptance speech played as the lights went down, which I thought was a nice touch, but I think my feeling of sheer relief that it was over predominated over anything else.   

The Edge

Thursday, March 9th marked the Grand opening of what Jon Dennis of Tandem Developers, LLC described as, “The Edge,” – (1980 Commerce Street) “a new condominium project that will soon make quite a progressive architectural statement on the Milwaukee River.  It features a very forward looking design with the added bonus of significant amounts of open space, including a new riverwalk, riverfront park, and plaza between the buildings.  It is going to be a great place to live with very nice interior finishes and some "green" features such as bamboo flooring (a renewable resource).” As much as I would liked to have caught some mid-week relief and enjoy some food, drink, and live music, I am a slave to the grind and had to head over to my night job.  However, it seemed like something different and fairly cool to check out, so hopefully some of you can let me know what you thought of it.   

While you were out . . .

. . . enjoying so many cool events going on in Beertown last weekend, Stuart flew me to CT for a brief respite from our "great place on a Great Lake" (that one never gets old  - ha!).  Of course, my theory is that all of the cool gigs/events waited until I left the city to take place here in Milwaukee on Friday night. Not only did you have your choice of NYC Bomba/Plena group “Los Pleneros” at Latino Arts, Inc., (1028 S. 9th St.) a free show by a former Stray Cat at Northern Lights Theater, conveniently located inside Potawatomi Casino (1721 W. Canal St.) or the ethereal voice of Jane Siberry at the Pabst, (144 E. Wells St.) but it also happened to be First Friday at the Milwaukee Art Museum.  I STILL REALLY want to see the Bruce Nauman exhibit and Def Harmonic were playing as well (!).  And THEN, if that’s not enough, the Milwaukee premiere of New York Doll – a documentary about a former member of The New York Dolls, starring Sylvain Sylvain, Iggy Pop, Bob Geldof and Chrissie Hynde just to name a few!, was playing at the WMSE "Friday Night Freakshow" at the Times Cinema (5906 W Vliet St.). MAN!

Saturday, while Stuart took me shopping in Manhattan’s diamond district (!!), the Milwaukee Public Zoo was free to the public for the first time in I don’t-even-KNOW-how long.  Furthermore, that evening, you had your pick of:  belly dancing at Milwaukee Gay Arts Center (703 S. 2nd St), the Riverwest Follies Variety Show at St. Mary Czestochowa (3055 N. Fratney St.), featuring the Riverwest Accordion Club and the Chop Top Toronadoes, or Mark Mallman - who’s opened for acts such as Guided by Voices, Beth Orton, Linda Ronstadt, Cat Power, Donovan, Tegan and Sara, Exene Cervenka and Cracker, among others - playing at the Mad Planet (533 E. Center St.) .

And - to add insult to injury - as I flew back home on Midwest Airlines (only half an hour delayed this time – a miracle!), David Gray and Aqualung played at the Riverside Theater (116 W. Wisconsin Ave.) on Sunday night.  I got in just late enough to miss the Oscars for the first time in quite a while but, thanks to the Downer (2589 N. Downer Ave.) and Oriental Theaters (2230 N. Farwell Ave.), I can proudly say that I have seen quite a few of the nominated films. 

So there you have it – your belated weekend update from the gal-about-town who happened to be out of town.  Fill me in on YOUR adventures, so I can hear more about how much I missed out on, or let me know what’s coming up this week(end).  Later.

“The Actor’s Nightmare and More” RSVP Productions

Saturday was one of those leisurely days that just kind of passes and you ask yourself, “What did I do?” and have difficulty coming up with the answer.  Just what I needed.  Lovely lunch at Lulu’s with my friend Gail – I don’t know what I enjoyed more – their current exhibition of monkey astronaut prints showing in the bar, the delicious Belmar Scottish ale on tap, or their impressive collection of Lulu fezes – who knew?! 

Nevertheless, I managed to get my proverbial act together to make it over to the Brady Street Pharmacy/Astor Theatre (1696 N. Astor St.) to catch RSVP Productions’ performance of two Christopher Durang plays, The Actor’s Nightmare and The Hardy Boys and the Mystery of Where Babies Come From.  To my surprise, I found a rock star parking spot in front of Glorioso’s (which is extremely rare on the lower east side), and had some time to chat with Uncommon Theatre’s founder and Artistic Director Mark Hooker and Terry Gavin, who both starred in their most recent production of  Angels in America: Milennium Approaches. 

Once again, I want to take the opportunity to rave about the space that is the Astor Theatre.  Owner James Searles has lovingly converted a portion of the pharmacy into a nice little theater, complete with what I assume to be the original seats of the Astor Theater and some impressive lighting equipment.  It holds maybe 50 people and lends such an intimate feel to the production, similar to the Boulevard Theatre.  Granted, I would still advise getting there early, so as not to be sitting in the actors’ laps, but you get the picture. 

I can also say with confidence that I enjoyed the Durang shows a LOT more than I had expected.  Many of the same actors from RSVP’s previous production, Reckless, appeared in the plays, as well as some new faces.  Dear Ruthie was simply MAHVELOUS (how could she NOT be?) as “Mrs. Sorken,” giving an impressive lecture on the etymology of drama-related vocabulary.  And her handbag was exquisite, I might add.  Mark and I both agreed that it’s ALWAYS a pleasure to see Kirk Thomsen in his boxers, although Mark was hoping for some tighty whities (well, you can’t have everything).  The silver tights were definitely an added bonus.  “An Actor’s Nightmare” played out a scenario about which I think every actor has had anxiety dreams.  I know I have.  “You’re on in five minutes” – and you are thinking, “What play are we doing, again?”.  Watching the actors struggling to get through the scenes of four different plays with their terminally disoriented and confused co-actor was painfully funny, if it weren’t so true.  I especially enjoyed Cynthia L. Paplaczyk’s performance in Beckett’s Checkmate.  She had some great surreal expressions that would have made the late exile proud.   Her  rendition of the sex maniac, “Nurse Cratchett,” in “The Hardy Boys and the Mystery of Where Babies Come From” was beyond creepy – you could almost see the saliva gathering at the corners of her mouth as she prepared to devour the super-sleuthing/sweater-sporting duo who were scouting about for “clues” to help solve their newest mystery.  Hilarious.  Miss Ruthie took off her wig and let her leg hair down as Mark Hagen in a FABULOUS performance as Frank Hardy.  It was really funny and, well, thankfully short.  It wasn’t dragged out, the jokes didn’t get stale, and we got out at a decent hour for Mark and Terry to grab some pizza and I could have a nightcap with my friends.  It runs through this coming weekend, and tickets are going fast, so make a point to catch it if you can.