Riot in the City

In like a Lion

2010-03-26T15:39:00.003-05:00

So excited for spring. Ready to be done with the monotony and grey of winter. I want to be active again.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

2010-02-16T11:39:00.003-06:00

Good editorial in the NY Times today. Joe Chase and SP needs a smart plan for the next decade... though I don't know if they've learned that plowing over the farm fields isn't really yielding them much gain (Marcus still went there)

"Slumburbia" by Timothy Egan

German Art Students

2010-02-09T10:21:00.003-06:00

A sort-of farewell show at the High Noon this Friday. 21+ $5.

http://host.madison.com/entertainment/music/article_cf88a361-c567-59cc-b72c-427f3831bb45.html

Oh German Art Students, how awesome you are. I'm sad to lose one of the last remaining Five Dollar Foundation bands of my youth. But I suppose it's time.. Happy trails to the new trio. You rocked it at the first MAMAs all those years ago.

Congrats on a job well done!

rain rain go away

2010-01-23T23:36:00.002-06:00

What a drizzly, damp day. Made it out to La Baguette and nearly had the Seinfeld marble rye episode play itself out, except I managed to get the last loaf. It was so totally worth it.

Also scored some phenomenally awesome chili cheese dogs at Mad Dogs. Best ever: the cutest 4 year old boy in the world trying to figure out how to eat the massive hot dog. oh, and they have coke zero.

Going to miss Coco. He was the best! F NBC.. although I do love Chuck.
Project Runway is starting again... any over/under bets?
blerg. it's January.

Happy New Years!!

2010-01-02T14:21:00.003-06:00

Happy new years all!

I got through all of the stress of the Edgewater drama of December, and then basically collapsed into a sinus infection and sleep-recovery mode so I was better by Christmas, only to then befall another illness a few days afterwards. So it's meant a lot of reading and sleeping for me. Monday the whole cycle starts anew. It's been a great weekend so far to catch up on a number of items that have taken a backseat during the last few weeks and months.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll spend my time systematically archiving and filing the 1400 or so emails I have in my inbox. I've taken a couple of stabs at spam-control during some marathon council sessions where I can click and delete while I listen to the debate raging, but I hate Microsoft Exchange's archiving functions, especially on the web version.

Mary lent me David Plouffe's "The Audacity to Win" which was an interesting read for an election junkie like myself. There were a number of times Obama was quoted about how he felt about the campaign and running for office, and at points I had to read them out loud for me and the bf to laugh at, because I had pretty much verbatim said the same things while a candidate running.

I have a number of personal and policy new year's resolutions I'm looking to make good on. (Got 4 weeks to the frostiball.. time to hit the gym, this whole "elected official" thing does a number on my cortisol & stress levels...that door knocking was really good for me.)

Had a fun, albeit low-key new years. Saw some friends. Hit the old fashioned. I really like how they limit new years to just their card members. It was nice not to be uncomfortably smashed in between a ton of random strangers. There was no cover, free champagne and tasty little snacks. BF & I started reminiscing about the year that was, which lead me to all my iphone pics, nearly a year's worth that has accumulated on my phone. My cousin Sarah has done this really nifty photo diary thing on flickr that I look at with awe and envy.

One of my resolutions should be to get my canon powershot fixed, the lens is jammed, so I can take better pics than just my iphone shots. I love how Sarah just picks the little and simple everyday objects and moments and turns them into simple, enticing images. Perhaps a little project of my own like that would do me some good. I had been doing some shots-on-the-street during the prez. election. Otherwise, all I've got up on my flickr account is some statue of liberty stuff (Congrats to Hoofer Council and Paul Davidsaver for taking it on again this year!!)

At any rate, in March I'll be the monthly artwork exhibiting at everyone's favorite local sandwich shop Mildreds!

Sarah's pictures give me wanderlust & I'm so proud she's getting to do some modeling now that she's in New York. She always had the family height and bone structure I didn't (the difference between having a 6'4" German and a 5'6" Italian for fathers).

Francis is doing well in China. We've been getting very short, sporadic updates. He's available to be on Skype at like 5am our time, so I've only caught him a couple times. Once at 5am, and then a couple times around 5pm, which is morning there, before he's off to teach classes. It still baffles me that none of the buildings there have central heat, in a (small!) city of 700,000 people. He's freezing his ass with but a single space heater to keep his whole apartment space warm. Last night bf and I put up some plastic wrap over our really crappy 1960s single-pane slide windows in the bedroom. With recessed track blinds, our other apartment windows will have to stay uncovered so we can control the light (and awful window condensation!) in the apartment. The bedroom's a lot better now, though the loose plastic wrap billowing from the heater air is freaking the cat out.

We went yesterday and pilfered hockey skates from N's mom's house. I think we're off to Tenney Park to go skating. I think it's been since high school the last time I went skating. I'm really excited, even though the temperature outside is awful. Dusty and crew are/were out at Brittingham to rock out to some broomball at 1pm, but I wasn't quite functioning in time. The medicine I was on had me fall asleep really early last night, so I woke up at 3:30am wide awake and cranked out on some work before tiring out and going back to sleep at 7am.

Some of the different pop-culture & music year-in-review stories that have been getting all kinds of play this week, I go huh? that was a hit song? It made me realize that I've really had my head under a big (Edgewater & council shaped) rock since April. I'm looking forward to 2010 to reconnect with friends and people my own age and get a solid schedule together that balances the personal with the professional. Excited to hook up with Annie after running into her on Willy Street last weekend. Want to hear how her shelter work at the Salvation Army is working out,and now I'll have another Project Runway junkie for the new season -though something tells me she probably can't afford cable these days either. I can hope though!!

It kind of really sucks when the Christmas present that gets you most excited is a salad spinner. Cooking really has become my outlet. I was so excited to learn that the Kitchen Gallery carried Waechtersbach mixing bowls. The sunshine yellow one I got at TJMax got a hairline crack in it (from all that whisking action!) and now I know I can replace it when I need to. I was also eyeing up a larger version. That metal target monstrosity I have is ready to be tossed.

So my apologies for not blogging more. I really lead a very boring, non-descript, non-stylish life. Again, I envy Sarah and her Boho life a number of days. Don't know what people would think if I started coming to council meetings in that delicious shade of Chanel lipstick she's been rocking. Round these parts its definitely substance over style.. but I'd like to keep a little hip, hipster style while it's still age appropriate. I'll have my whole life for pantsuits.

Happy new years all!
May your new year and new decade be 100 times better than the last.

Next up...

2009-11-16T09:29:00.002-06:00

Hooray!
Budget's done. Birthday's passed. Burying my head in work. Looking forward to the city chilling out for a while. Fat chance with the Edgewater & Apex spinning fast & furious (though Apex less so). Excited to see Barrett's running! Demo is started on the houses next door. Got out to do some inspection field work yesterday. Ran into Adam and Julie getting back from the CNI retreat (thanks for the sandwich box!!)Dad's coming soon for Thanksgiving... still not sure how to navigate 4 thanksgiving events. Bummed that Wed is going to conflict with TLNA meeting. I like that bunch & their orderly meetings. Mom said that WISC had a nice editorial about the council and the budget, but I'm not seeing it posted (yet) online. Mr. Greenbaum still hasn't given that phone call. Hope all is well.

Still not sure what to do with this blog. I hate spamming people, and I really don't want to expound on any theories or policies. I get excited, pissed off, frustrated, you name it about stuff, but it's not my place to comment. This isn't the forum.. I get no forum. I get to just hold it all inside so I can be fair to all. right?
:)

I've got enough on my plate without kicking up new dust. I have nothing interesting to say. I haven't seen anything cool, haven't done much of anything cool, and what little cool stuff I've done, I don't feel like sharing. Not now at least. and I really don't think people are into hearing about what I watched online/tv last night, what color my new shirt is.

I get to just be a robot (your robot!), and a small part of me gets saved for my friends and bf and family. not to be shared.

Everyone lately has had that robotic look to their faces. Christmas should be nice, except Dad's out east, and Francis is abroad. I hope the christmas tree will survive the cat.

happy upcoming holidays & festive eating!

Worlds away

2009-09-11T08:19:00.006-05:00

My brother went to China to teach English to (hopefully) Elementary school students. I have a lot of problems with China. A LOT. Don't get me wrong, the people are fine, but I'm a pretty spitfire, politically engaged American, and I'm sure I'd get myself into all kinds of first-amendment, freedom of speech issues, if I was over there. There's no way I could go into a Chinese school and teach Chinese children English and steer clear of politics and social issues (because that's what I do, who I am, politics pervades my life).

So in honor of Francis' story, I guess I'd like to post his chronicles, because there's no way in hell I could ever do what he's doing, and I'm proud of him, even if I'm freaked out and worried. (and something tells me Blogger isn't accessible in China)

We're not getting a ton of information. Francis isn't really a loquacious person.

Here's the latest:

"So, its been sorta a weird roller coaster ride but here is the NEW INFO. I am no longer teaching in Wuxi. The school I was supposed to go to decided they didnt wanna hire me after all, nothing I could have done. So they found me a teaching position in Changzhou, 1 province over from Wuxi, at the ***** Foreign Language School, and my contract has changed in a good way. For starters I'm making 5000 RMB instead of 4000, I am provided with a dormitory room with everything provided except I pay water and electricity every month. I am also given a meal card for use within the school. I am still in Nanjing at the moment and leave in 2 days time to my new school, (saturday night at 9pm your time). I am providing you with the contract but this is where I am at right now. Lots of love"

I think I found the school's website. It actually looks really posh. Much different than the 2005 esl teacher review I found, though the school does look like maybe it's been built after 2005. It appears that there's 1000 students from kindergarten through high school. Actually, it kinda puts Arrowhead, Brookfield Academy & Marquette to shame, from the looks of it. To be honest, there really isn't much to compare it to, save for really ritzy prep academies no where near the midwest.

I really hope that it's the school in the photos that Francis is off to. All the best little bro.

Edgewater tally

2009-08-26T13:30:00.000-05:00

The crowd was estimated at 275 people (counting # of people in pews x number of pews, etc).

Of the 99 registration forms we received from attendees, 47 were in support, 40 in opposition and 12 undecided.

This isn't Gossip Girl

2009-08-26T11:52:00.003-05:00

for inquiring minds: last night was Tuesday's Double Bubble night at the Old Fashioned. After a long, stressful day the bf and I went to kick back. alone.

Moving on up to the east side

2009-08-23T16:59:00.002-05:00

Well, the moving has ceased! Some boxes have remained, in need of attention. I went out and bought 100 manilla folders yesterday to file away the masses of papers, proposals and policy briefs I've received over the last 4 months. Tonight I think.. after dinner on the SW side.. the bf's little bro's tires got slashed in the rash of vandalism that took place on Friday night. Twee's crime meeting this week will have some fresh fuel for the fire. I've got the fires burning with the Edgewater neighborhood meeting Tuesday night (7:30pm, Bethel Lutheran Church)

The new kitchen in working nicely, albeit its cramped, galley dimensions.

I've moved all of half a block, but it was the best outcome to be sure... my life has just been chaos for the past 2 weeks is all.

I've also been dealing with Hawks and Bats. It's quite an urban jungle down here..
Bid Day work starts tomorrow morning. The girls are all moving into the houses this week, so no more telephone tag and unanswered messages.

Went out to Oregon today with mom to visit my Great Aunt. Noticed that my great-grandmother's house on Main Street is up for sale... I told mom she could buy it, she said it made no sense for her to move (back) to Oregon when she works in Madison. Couldn't argue... but the family house...

Yesterday was the 1st birthday of the bf's niece, and goddaughter... gotta love family gatherings and requests for grandchildren when two people are just trying to figure out which cabinet to put the coffee cups in. Also, I found chocolate cake on my new blouse today from those little hands... it'll come out, right?

Stopped into the 'Bou on Friday. We've got a running dialogue of comparison going between the Echo Tap and the Caribou. Friday's 11pm crowd was pumping the jukebox full of generic, forgettable 90's crap, so we left and went to the Old Fashioned. My frequent customer card has been racking up the points.... someday I'll hit that free cheese plate!

In all seriousness though, this week will be a very busy, important, stressful week. Landmarks, Edgewater meeting, Library meeting, work, life, etc.. Summer I think is officially ending this week.

I'm looking for an opportunity to run away for a weekend in September or October, perhaps as late as my birthday, since August and my resources all got gobbled up with The Move. Ideas so far: Door County cabin (let me know if you've got friends with an open place!) or couch surfing with friends in Chicago for an art/shopping get-a-way. I'd want to take the train from Milwaukee, possibly. I really enjoyed the Hiawatha experiences I've had (except that one time I missed it..) Excited for the brewing Madison Yahara Station discussion. Looks like it's going to pick up. Got some ideas on the budget. Excited to see DRLI coming finally to the council with enactment language!

..September's going to be a busy ride!

Lines on the road & in the sand

2009-08-03T15:08:00.004-05:00

The bike lane painter truck just went by! Johnson Street's getting bike lanes and median strips painted!! Hell yeah! (somehow our neighborhood got bumped off of last year's schedule.. so much of Johnson Street was down to little or no markings). Really excited to see the lines get painted. I'm probably more excited than anyone I know over this (or should be).

This week is going to be a hellish week. Super lame personal drama/apartment shit is hitting the fan. We'll see where my belongings go on August 15th -here, or somewhere else- all this for the coolest, sweetest, most fun cat in the world. Fred rocks my world. I'm not going forward without him in my life... but I don't think elected officials are allowed to be homeless or couch surf -something tells me the government accountability board doesn't like that...

Made really great chicken stew last night for dinner, and had it again this morning for breakfast. it cheered me up a little. first time i de-boned a chicken.

the clock is ticking: t-minus 11 days..

Birthday week!

2009-07-27T12:16:00.003-05:00

It happens to be my boyfriend's birthday today -golden birthday in fact. My mom will also be celebrating her XX birthday on Thursday (39 again, right mom?) I'm at a bit of a loss as to how I'm going to decorate the cake. "Surprize me!" was the response I got when I asked... Man, the world is my oyster on this one.

This week is Restaurant Week here in Madison. http://www2.madisonmagazine.com/restaurantweek/

I hope you'll get out and enjoy all of the great culinary adventures the city has to offer!

Yesterday found N and I out at Olin Park for the MPPOA picnic. Schumacher came out, and we discovered that he was my 7th grade German teacher... small world indeed!

Went hiking around the trails and enjoyed the early afternoon. The beaver-chewed trees were the coolest. The smelly, foamy sludge on the shoreline was the worst part. We discovered after we put the flower behind my ear that there were red bugs on it.

Happy Summer!

My father's daughter

2009-07-23T05:04:00.007-05:00

It is now, in fact 5:04 am, and my father, who arrived into town last night for a family function this weekend, is on the phone talking to a colleague about energy forecast models at 5:04 in the morning. (Who is up at this hour to take his phone call??) But yet here I am awake also (and blogging). In my mind I think about John Nichol's comments about my blog, and I've been feeling guilty of late for my lack of comments. To be honest, I've really wanted to figure out what the hell I want to do with this blog. What its purpose should be -driven by professional (council) concerns, whether it should be a personal outlet, whether I can maintain any sort of joy de vievre and carefree fun and humor, or if everything I write on here is going to be excessively anaylized and I'll be crucified for comments large and small by sniping malcontents and find quotes randomly pulled into print. this blog really isn't me going on record about anything. I've been really pissed to see news get sloppy and use blog quotes. I don't consider blog quotes as hang-your-hat legitimate, walter cronkite quotes. I've just thought of it as sloppy, tabloid-minded journalism. It's in my mind comparable to overhearing a conversation in a bar and running what you've heard. Maybe that view puts me in the crosshairs of modern journalism trends, but something tells me the AP style guide doesn't look kindly upon it (then again, I haven't looked recently. I haven't been near the cardinal copy desk for some years...)

To have a blog is to admit to having some sort of audience. I don't know what kind of audience I have (or want). I DON'T want to blog regularly, like clockwork, because then I'm just going to get stressed over one more thing I HAVE to do before my day is done. Many people blog and chronicalize for themselves. I, however, was threatened as a teenage to be sent home from my european sojourn for not chronicalizing enough (well, anything). I'm not about diaries. I really haven't ever been. The future of this blog depends on its irregularity. If it gets to be rote routine, I'll just get bored and drop it. I'm like that. Kinda all or nothing is my modus operandi.

My economics professor Menzie Chen had a very scholarly, well-produced blog that he would reference in his power lectures. It was a glorious thing to behold, charts of macroeconomic models included. I would just like to be able to post up my weekend photos on occasion and blog about the little things in life that have been going on. Fuck the grandstanding and agenda-driven political blogs. They have their place and this is not that. I'll go crazy if that's what it turns into. I want to talk at times about the cool book I saw or the random occurance I had. or the photo I took walking down the street. I want to be able to swear. and not spell things perfectly. I want to have no agenda. and I tend to think that an unstudied, stream-of-consciousness, omelet of a blog makes for a boring, inconsequential blog. so be it. if I use this, it will be for stress relieve, and self-conversational purposes. it will not be to pontificate on the latest council news and gossip. I have the utmost respect for my colleagues and constituents and won't be talking about them or their issues here. This is not the place (or time). ... but I notice that my last post was all about council/constituent stuff. You can see I'm obviously still trying to figure out my writer's voice. And many days it is a Jeckll/Hyde approach. One week I might be in the mood for talking about neighborhood stuff. Other weeks I won't want to talk about it at all. On the whole though, I don't want to talk about it these days. I did blog fairly frequently during election time, but then the election consumed my life.. I'm working hard to make sure that council doesn't consume my every waking moment and that I build in a fair amount of personal free time, dinner and lunch with friends, etc. We'll see how that plan fairs once work kicks back in..

When I get home at night (frequently past 9pm) my concerns go to making dinner (actually making dinner.. no microwave) and catching up on the day's news guilty pleasures (in order: nytimes, politico, perezhilton, madison.com, criticalbadger, thedailypage, mrs-o.org)at that point my time is my time, and the last thing I (or my boyfriend) wants me to do is sit in front of a computer screen and regurgitate the last 12 hours of emails, memos, and meetings I've attended to. Nick deserves my actual attention, not the back of my head at a computer screen. The other night I got really creative in my attempt to make candied carrots. 3 weeks ago or so I managed to make an awesome quiche out of the pitiful assortments of ingredients in my refridgerator.

So my sense is that for the near future this blog will get updated usually at 4am when I'm randomly awake with insomnia, and that its content will rarely be of scholarly, policy driven-fashion. If you'd like to know my thoughts on the latest headline or project. Please contact me (during normal business hours/early evening -thanks!- also, what's up with 4:30 am neighborhood listserv emails?? don't you realize my phone beeps everytime you send one out?)

I have a feeling a fair amount of topics will be about food. I love food. My free time is largely surrounded by food, whether cooking or eating or reading or watching. I did start that food blog, and then realized that if I tried to blog every restaurant experience I had, I'd be blogging 3 times a day.

I'm excited for top chef to start back up (and project runway!) there's no friends/bf with cable so i'll have to scour youtube again. I really want to read Julia Child's memoirs next after seeing a nytimes article of making meatloaf for Norah Ephron (making meatloaf for Norah Ephron is like ravioli for Mario Batalli) There's this new movie coming out called Julie&Julia that weaves two julia Child/themed memoirs together. Merrill Streep is playing Julia Child. I'm still hunting for a cool apron. I have the one from Nanu's restaurant, but not a cool funky print one. The one with Cherries that Pete was wearing yesterday at Co. of Thieves I totally envied. I've been on the hunt for the perfect apron for about a year and a half now. Anthology on state street and Anthropology at Hilldale consistently come close and then miss the mark. I've yet to find the right fit.

Things I wanted to blog about, but haven't had time, and now they're too far gone:
-Jean Street block party
-Elizabeth street 4th of July party
-TL block party this past weekend
-shooting the Fountains of Wayne concert 2 weeks ago, and going for drinks with them afterwards at Jenna's

Things I'm excited for
-Julie&Julia
-family in town
-(was) Maxwell Street Days and the awesome finds I got at Tellus Mater

Things I'm stressed out about
-my brother being jumped on the east side of milwaukee and the nasty healing cut to his face
-Francis going to China to live
-slow/no hours at work til august
-thinking of a good bday present for both nick & my mom with limited resources
-stuff.

things that keep me up at night
-email
-sewing tablecloths
-the fact that the book on Chez Panisse and Alice Waters is really good

things I want
-to have the resources and time to turn off my phone for a week (in August?) and go traveling/camping
-time to go out with good friends and drinking buddies
-a secretary (heh..)
-to read that latest Mary Russell novel
-to go back to sleep.. but dad's asking me what to do about breakfast..

heh. i think I'm done for the night. until the next pre-dawn burst of energy..

Art Walk!!

2009-07-01T04:05:00.003-05:00

For me it was more of an Art Bike, but between my brother's graduation party and running the Hoofer Pier Security for Sunday's Rhythm & Booms, I was able to get to all but four of the artists' houses. I'm tempted to apply next year to be part of it, even though I'm on the edge of the neighborhood. I'd love to get some of the younger artsy folks on this end of things also involved for next year, and make it able to stretch from one end of the neighborhood to the other. My (new, neighbor-made, hand-knitted) hat goes off to all of you!!

It's been a very busy, and for a number of personal reasons, very stressful couple of weeks.

I was really buoyed by the neighborhood business-owners meeting we had last Wednesday at Company of Thieves. Thanks for the great turnout everyone! Things we discussed for immediate action: more/improved bike parking, marketing strategies, simple streetscape improvements/signage possibilities, discussions on desires for metered parking, and then we also discussed what long-term improvements to the streetscape can be made during the 2013 Johnson Street reconstruction.

A reminder that the Tenney-Lapham Block Party will be on Saturday, July 18th on Patterson Street. If you'd like to get involved in planning, or you have some suggestions of things you'd like to see, please contact me at district2@cityofmadison.com or talk with Jim Wright from Cork n Bottle.

Tonight I spent four and a half hours interviewing marketing & market research firms for the E Washington Corridor, with Alders Rummel and Rhodes-Conway and others. I think we picked a great group of folks, and I'm really excited to see all the consultants hit the ground running. There's so much that NEEDS to happen on E Wash, and I can't wait for the seeds to get planted...

In the mean time, my father and I have been having a number of conversations regarding the nation's larger economic issues, both short and longterm, and how they're affecting my little neighborhood. Land O Lakes shutting down Madison Dairy and dismantling it just because they can is incredibly disturbing, and everyone I've spoken to feels so helpless. There's nothing we can do to make those jobs stay and that whole city block from just turning to a vacant shell. With the economy as it is, I was told tonight to expect that sight to sit vacant for several years. -Not what I wanted to hear (or believe), but there's probably a whole lot of truth to it, sadly. And then there's Don Miller.. 2 more city blocks to sit vacant... but I'm resolved to do everything in my power to get the dialogue rolling so these properties don't just turn to tumbleweeds. It's funny, because I've had several people mention that they're interested in developing the Don Miller site, but there's such scant resources right now, the economy's holding the lions' den back, for now, which is good and bad. I'm glad people are being more cautious with their resources, and we're not being pressured, but at the end of the day, I'd rather have useful buildings there instead of parking lots.

I'm happy to report the bike lanes on Johnson Street have now gotten onto the city's schedule to get painted!! Right around Wisconsin Avenue there's no visible lane paint left, and I've been really nervous when riding home, day or night. The pedestrian painters were out several weeks ago and I stopped and talked to one of the crews the night they were out. I noticed that this week the curbs got the yellow paint.

My to my displeasure, the basketball courts at James Madison Park got torn up without any notice to me or my neighbors. They should be done in a couple of weeks (they'd better be! It's their prime season for use!)

There's a million other things I want to discuss, but I'm going to sleep now. Tomorrow/today is a busy & long day.
Plus, Public Enemies opens tomorrow/today! I can't wait to go see my hat for a split second from that Darlington courtroom scene.

Beam me up...

2009-05-18T15:17:00.009-05:00

Well, Spring is here, and after a whirlwind April my days and nights are starting to get a rhythm to them. I'm working on getting posting abilities on the TLNA listserve (I've just been receiving all the emails up to this point). There's a ton of things I want to send out to the neighborhood. I'm thinking a Sunday night comprehensive email through the listserv would be ideal, and I'm working on an alder report for the neighborhood newsletter this week.

I'm happy Brenda's continuing to do her blogging thing. It's nice that she's able to sit down and post all she does. My carpal tunnel-recovered hands just can't take that sort of typing, especially as of late.

I want to get some feedback from the neighborhood on what kind of platform they'd like for me to develop to get information out to them -the listserve, a wordpress hybrid website/blog. I'm one of those people who hates to have a cluttered inbox with a gazillion of mass emails. Regardless of how informative they are, they lose my attention when I've got 50 of them to sort through, so I don't want to contribute to the mass that invariably hits my neighbors if I can help it.

The council has been great so far. Now that the majority of the 3 hour+ department orientations have finished up, I've got more evening time to devote to constituent concerns, and there's a new one every day. :)

Bryan & I talked about doing Sunday night council study sessions. I'm really excited by our freshman class. I think we're going to accomplish a lot of great things, and I can tell already we're going to be a vocal bunch on the council. We'll see where we all land in the big scheme of things, but right now we're sticking together pretty well and we're all very talented and not wanting to be outdone just because we're the new kids on the block.

I went biking around Lake Monona the other day and managed to buy a dresser at a yard sale for $20 (so much for lunch!), and this morning I saw a posting on Michelle Obama's first 100 days of style and both items made me realize that I've been phoning it in in the style department as of late (baseball jersey ts are not appropriate business attire! what happened to the girl who wore rainbow legwarmers! on her arms!).

Doing and organizing my laundry into my new dresser are my personal goals for the week... as is actually going running. (ha!) but I should set some personal goals, right? Just because I made it successfully through the election doesn't mean I get to eat nutella crepes at Bradburry's whenever I want... I think...

Happy Spring. Get outside! t-minus 6 months until the flurries begin again.

Dance it like it's hot

2009-04-18T20:28:00.003-05:00

I was on a quest tonight to find Tom Klein an old friend who books all the underage shows in town. He works mostly outta the new goodman community center. Well turns out there's no punk rock show tonight but there is a crowd of several hundred all here in the gym for a very large dance-off. It's a very cool crowd in this sweltering gym. And I'm loving this new iPhone.
Live from the East side it's Saturday night.. Big props go out to the organizers for making such a successful, positive event (there were a number of parents in the audience)!
(pics on their way.. Apparently there's some things this iPhone can't do)

Bike it! Hike it!

2009-04-16T19:23:00.005-05:00

It's been a whirlwind week and a half. Thank you to everyone who supported my candidacy and those who spoke with me, whatever your viewpoints on alder choices.

The fun has already begun. I'm not even sworn in yet, and I was at City Hall today for 6 hours.

Forgive the quiet blog, there's been a lot going on, and at the end of the day, I have my job and a boss in need of attention.

My swearing in ceremony is Tuesday, the 21st at noon in the council chambers. Please feel free to come out.

I have a number of things I'd like to do regarding new media and web 2.0 applications that I don't think the city website page I get can handle, so I'm thinking about creating a district 2 website, maybe something on wordpress. If you have some suggestions on what/who i should use for a site, please post them up.

I'm so excited to be elected! I'm already hitting the ground, and I really want to be the best alder possible.

Already got a very valid constituent concern in the mail today. I'll be following up with it with some phone calls to staff tomorrow.
I'd like to stress this site to EVERYONE for constituent concerns (although with the disclaimer that I don't get access to my city email account until after I get sworn in on Tuesday afternoon)

http://www.cityofmadison.com/council/contact.cfm

Contact me!

and now for your consideration on this beautiful spring day:
look good & do good: the Dutch bicycle

b

One for the Memory Book

2009-04-01T16:38:00.003-05:00

I received the Wisconsin State Journal's endorsement today!

ENDORSEMENT: Bridget Maniaci a fresh start for District 2 on the Madison City Council

Debate tonight. Memorial Union Class of '24 Room. 6:30pm
See you there!

April Fools!

2009-04-01T12:23:00.002-05:00

As a Cardinal alum, it's pretty hard to admit, but I <3 the Badger Herald. SO hilarious! Now if you'll excuse me... I have to go call Bryon Eagon...

Go For the Gusto

2009-03-31T02:30:00.014-05:00

I came pulling up to the parking attendant in the Capitol East lot on Doty and Pinckney today, on my way out from a coffee meeting. She handed me my ticket and debit card back, and then said "Good luck next Tuesday!" It took me a moment to register that she knew who I was (...too many trips to Ancora lately I suppose.. either that, or the "Bridget for City Council" button was a dead-giveaway).

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're in the final stretch of this battle. Forgive me if I've been keeping my head down and staying off the blog and focused on the voters and issues here in the district.

For something of a shoestring, rag-tag, intensely personal effort that started some 4 months ago, I almost can't believe how close we are. And I never would have imagined billboards. ... the power of dreams...

I've got a really exciting web media-application that's going to hit this week, showing how great for citizens web media features can be. Lit pieces are dropping... as are newspaper endorsements. No surprise with the Cap Times endorsement. I wouldn't have expected anything else. Paulson's got an editorial at the Herald. It tiffs me a bit that he couches his language as if he were an undergrad. He's 33.

I'm pushing back on Paulson's editorial because there's valid points to push back on, and he's making claims for Brenda, and against me that just aren't true or are highly distorted. Plus, I know I'd like a little more emotion out of a Jane Q. Public than no emotion, no response. I'm not a robot.

So:

I can't help but stiffen at someone who belittles what I'm capable of, and in the closing days of this race, the generational and gender bias grates thin. Brenda was a young woman once too, and Eagon can sit and write a 19 page plan on safety because he's in a relatively calm race with an identical electorate across the breadth of his district. I've got two campaigns in one to be spending my time on. I wouldn't have dared run for this seat if I couldn't throw down on the policy front and couldn't stand up for myself.

Paulson makes the claim that Mr. Cieslewicz is the "only elected official" to have endorsed me. That's not true. There's a number of currently elected individuals that are supporting me. I'm just not plastering their name all over my campaign literature. I'm not a fan of arms-races of names. Yes, I'm getting pressure to do so. To put everyone I possibly know onto my website. But my question is, Do people really need 100 names to read through? Is that 101st name going to convince them to vote for me? I thought yard signs were the tools to see who your neighbor is voting for.

Support is nice and necessary especially for a first-time candidate like myself, but there is a saturation point, and an endorsement list should show your breadth as a candidate to bring diverse interests and individuals together.

Brenda made a comment in the Channel 3 news piece that made me giggle. "As an eight-year incumbent, Konkel said endorsements aren't the things she's focused on."
What? That's what her campaign literature from day one up through this weekend with the Mark Pocan lit piece has been. She's spent far more time and space listing endorsements from individuals that have a lot in common and lack a diversity of viewpoints than actually talking about her accomplishments in 8 years in office. They're very slim, and her talking points show it.

Discussing a topic ad nauseum is one thing, but what I've been talking about in this race is her accomplishments for the neighborhood, and it's very slim for the district. Some questions I have: Why haven't the bike lanes been painted in 2 years? Why was she absent from all of the parks commission hearings on the Tenney Park Shelter over an 18 month period? Why is she now claiming on her campaign lit that she's been involved with that project when she's been anything but?

-And Paulson, cmon. "a steadfast ally of students, standing with us with important votes on sensible alcohol policy and public safety," -she's been consistently against the incredibly successful Downtown Safety Initiative, was against efforts to make Halloween a safe event, there's been no effort to assist the Downtown Residential Lighting Initiative that covers 1/3 of D2, she's absolutely NOT been out in front on issues of public safety. If so, why is Langdon Street (and Gorham and Johnson, etc) begging for better street lights and fearful of their safety walking at night.

If she's been such "an expert on housing issues and has helped maintain Madison as one of the most tenant-friendly cities in the nation" why do we have blocks of deplorable-quality rental housing directly in her jurisdiction that has sat, undisturbed during her tenure. It was not Alder Konkel that proposed the Photo Ordinance, nor the Rate-a-Landlord website. If Paulson is correct, and Konkel really did push Madison to the point of being "one of the most tenant-friendly cities in the nation" over her 8 years in office, there would be little left of the Tenant Resource Center today, having made itself obsolete. However, it's in full-demand and I have frustrated renters showing me where the mice enter their kitchen walls and their unheated, illegal porch bedrooms that they unsuccessfully tried to get the Tenant Resource Center to help them with to no results. Do not confuse a voluminous rental marketplace with "tenant-friendly".

These are fair critiques to make. And that's why I'm here. To stand up for the district. To say ideology is nothing if it's not effective in bringing results and it's not enough to protest and be constantly against ideas. You have to create a better world, and put ideas forward and bring positive change. I'm sick of the negativity, and the constant "No" reaction. I'm sick of seeing my neighborhood be ignored and taken for granted. I'm not here to stand idly by and let it continue. I'm a very good-natured individual, and I can take my lumps (this is politics, after all), but I'm not about to get pushed around when there's outright falsities involved.

Some people are really into her style. But a lot of people are not, and she needs to deliver as their alder as well, and that's why I'm running against her, because on the basics she's consistently let the district go, and she's let her pet interests take the attention of her time away from the district.

Paulson's fine to have a favorite horse in this race. Just about everyone does. But it's a heated, contested race, and there's only 24 hours in the day. You better believe I'm working hard, non-stop, and if he faults me because I don't have 20-page white-papers on my website, well, I'd suggest to Mr. Paulson that we get a cup of coffee and he can have a 20 page discussion with me. Yknow, its just a short walk across that back parking lot we share for him to come and say hello... but then Frost's classic seems to works best for the attitude of Paulson.

So because it's spring, and it's nice to have a distraction from the all-encompassing campaign, I leave you with Frost's "Mending Wall"

See you out on the campaign trail. I hope the more voters I'm talking with, I'm removing some old fences. T-minus 7 days to go... it's a jungle out there.

MENDING WALL
Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

The Power of Communication

2009-03-18T08:27:00.003-05:00

Last night I was finishing up doing doors and decided to cut over onto Johnson Street because it was too dark and isolated walking on Dayton Street (streetlights anyone?).

I happened upon this:

I was curious what the story was behind someone turning over a Konkel sign and making a hand-made sign for me out of it. I thought to myself "I have to meet these people". So I went and rang their bell. It turned out to be a girl and her boyfriend that are friends of friends of mine.

It turns out that Brenda came to their door and wanted to know if she could put the boyfriend down as a supporter. He was trying to be nice to her, so he waffled a bit, but didn't want his name down. Somehow out of their conversation, they were marked down for a yard sign, which when it arrived baffled them. The girl took down the yard sign, but then another appeared, and so she took it down again, and ANOTHER appeared, so this cycle kept going (which I had noticed while out during the primary, and I thought was curious) throwing away the yard sign, only to have another appear, until finally, the girl flipped the sign over, and drew one for me.

It would have been so simple to have gone up to the door and asked them what kept happening to the yard signs, instead of assuming anything and keep replacing them.

A brand new (Mon)day

2009-03-16T07:52:00.013-05:00

I'm really excited to say that today I earned the endorsements of mayors Paul Soglin, Dave Cieslewicz and Joe Sensenbrenner, three gentlemen who have different leadership styles and have (perhaps famously) not always agreed on issues, but they get what it takes to be an effective alder.

We were able to get together at Tenney Park yesterday to get some photos, here's the winning shot.

For inquiring minds, here's the link to the press release.

The website is also looking pretty spiffy now. Endorsements, voter info & yard signs abound!

Nichols mentioned Twitter in his latest Cap Times post. (No!) I'd like to say (for the record), I'm adamantly opposed to Twitter... anyone who's seen my recent fb-wants-to-look-like twitter status updates can attest to that. I don't care if it's "new" and supposedly "hip." You're looking at one stylish 25 year old who's not about to give into it. It's such a boastful, inane waste of time, and I have a feeling that neighbors (and friends, and my boyfriend) would appreciate that I'm spending my time elsewhere and away from compulsive status updates... the Forons have a lot of time on their hands to stalk to my every movements. Might as well just give them what they want? Right? Wrong.

The NY Times Twittered fashion week. For something like that, I can understand the need for instant multiple-location Blackberry gratification. Several large events in Madison like Halloween or IronMan could be a likely outlet. Just because I'm not Twittering doesn't mean I'm not constantly in touch with what's going on, it just means I think I'll keep my daily lunch choices private.

I can see Twitter devolving into a world of awful news cycle. Katherine Walsh teaches an excellent Political Communications class at the UW. One thing discussed is the impact and loss of public affairs decision making that happens with a lack of a traditional news cycle in all the fun that is the Web 2.

I spy..

2009-03-15T13:50:00.002-05:00

David Mollenhoff has a great editorial in the State Journal today about the lake view from Wisconsin Ave. I served with Mollenhoff on the Sesquicentennial Time Capsule Committee. We debated at great volume the merits of putting a full-sized versus a miniature cheesehead into the capsule, among other points.

Back to the future!

2009-03-13T15:57:00.006-05:00

I now have internet again after a week of my router box randomly dying on me. A week is a long time to be pressing my laptop against my back bedroom window to catch any spare networks I can find!

I'm excited that the new bicycle store is opening in the old Glitter Workshop. I'm excited that I'm no longer carrying the plague (well, really, an awful sinus infection) and I'm excited because a number of really great things have been happening with the campaign.

I received the endorsement of the Madison Professional Police Officer's Association, Firefighters Local 311, the Executive Board of the Dane County Democrats, the College Democrats, a number of really great District 2 residents, and there's more on the way!!

It's also really great to have sunshine as part of daily life again. Spring is on its way. Finally!

I've been having really great conversations with a number of neighbors, and I'm looking at who came out to vote in the primary. Voter turnout is just so difficult in a February primary. I was comparing Brenda's list of District 2 public supporters, and of the 104 listed online, 33 of those people didn't come out to vote on February 17th. (31.7% of her listed supporters). Not quite sure how quite to read the tea leaves here, but I thought it was interesting.

I had a fundraiser/neighbor meet and greet last Sunday. It was a great success, bringing a lot of different and unconnected neighbors out. HT (hat tip) to everyone who made it out in the rain!

Now that my health is back, and I've had some time to refocus post-primary, look forward to an exciting 3 1/2 weeks until the election. I've gotten a lot of great words of encouragement and offers of assistance.

I'm ready to rock this election!

Ps. The MPPOA put up a billboard for the race on Monday. The BF and I went and drove by it to see what it looked like, and the internets have been abuzz since it went up. The Critical Badger caught onto it today, and I posted up some thoughts about it. Again, I'm just SO glad there's not a huge photo of me on it! Nick still seems to think that I should go pose under it and have him take my picture... I keep trying to tell him I don't think a Fonzie-styled thumbs-up pose is what people are looking for in an elected official. Maybe I'll give in, and just have some fun with it... a billboard's pretty crazy. Is a new facebook photo in order?

http://thecriticalbadger.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/ha-billboards/

Help is on the way

2009-02-27T22:37:00.002-06:00

A brief look at the Federal stimulus resources allocated for Wisconsin:
http://www.recovery.wisconsin.gov/docview.asp?docid=16002&locid=164

The Concert at ERC

2009-02-27T19:48:00.002-06:00

It's been a crazy week after the primary. Tonight's been really great to just work and catch up on any number of items. I'm a big fan of getting out of the apartment to sit and work and I'm a fan of ambient noise. Among many favorite coffee houses, in times of nervous energy and writer's block, I tend to gravitate towards Espresso Royale at the end of State Street. The music, the atmosphere, (usually) the artwork and the people all are just spot on. Some of my best work has come from my laptop and the cafe's tiny round tables. Everyone around me is here to work, which is nice.

The campaign has just exploded in so many exciting directions since last Tuesday. I'm so excited for the next 5 weeks. Tomorrow is the League of Women Voter's candidate taping. There's fundraisers and breakfasts, coffees and candidate forums (DMI was on Thursday). And doors. Lots and lots of doors. I've been working on the back end to beef up some issue research. I'm so excited from all the great support I've received from residents contacting me to let me know of their excitement and support for my efforts.

I'd like to say again, thank you to all of the voters. I'm going to work hard to make you proud!

Please take tonight to go enjoy the people in your lives and the little things that make you happy.

All the best.
B

Sketches from the council meeting

2009-02-24T23:07:00.009-06:00

Tonight's the big metro fare increase meeting. It's slightly after 11pm. The meeting's been going since 6:30pm. The council members are now asking questions of staff. Below you will find some very brief sketches of public comments (my laptop power went out for a bit) and questions and statements from the alders.

Public comments

1-head of TPC, here on his own.

2-leona helmsly comment, open to property tax $1 a week. 9 outta 10 people said please don’t do this.

3- mentions TIF and developers

4- discussion on bus pass structure

5- {union rep Gene}wants to raise fares. Wants council to maintain course. Support full funding for future expenses. Support quality of service.

6- metro route designer. Route 34 –not there during rushhour, route 16. restore route 10

7- sierra club dude

8- Lisa Subek. Supports raise.good compromise worked out. Choice rider. Vote for whole package so low-income part gets passed

9- fuel issues.

10- Susan Schmidts. Supports increase. Mentioned RTA. Supports low-income subsidy

11- takes issue w it.

12- Rosemary Lee

13-

____ power went out___

14- this vote at this time against. On parks commission. Respects TPC. Portland native. Majority of their use is bus. Not trolleys.

15- not sexy like wind turbines. Governor’s energy task force report. Buyback solar panels vs. transportation efficiency. Wispolitics conference. Midwest fuel conundrum.

16- perception that council is indifferent. Supports creating low income fare program.

17- against increase

18- use a city or state lottery system to fund info. Tow/ticket bus (?) /rushhour lanes. Develop bus only lanes. Metro rail.

19- not happy.

20- talks about cutting Dave’s staff by 1%, salt vs sand for roads, BTK spraying, wants to increase parking rates 7%.

21- here for Progressive Dane. Takes issue with framing of issue. Wants to stick with TPC 25 cent. Look to Rochester ny. And Cincinnati. Quotes Lisa Subek’s numbers to speak against her.

22- spoke against it.

23- dave Williams of PD. Wannabe green city. Quotes isthmus article.

24- talks about budget basics.

25- issue with council conduct. Praises TPC for data, elasticity models. Would set terrible precident

26- families and clients she serves at her internship would be greatly impacted. Grad student. Minimum wage argument.

27- can afford, but really pissed off. Upset about inpact to middle and high school students. Environment issues. Way above the national market rate for bus/public transportation. NY rates in Madison.

28- false choice. Loss of revenue and opportunity. Issue of reconsideration. Share the burden of a democratic decision making process.

29- ozone levels. Pollution levels. DNR data.

30- art paul slossinger. Get radiohead CD pricing strategy. Table discussion until low income ticket. Bus wrap pricing strategy… can you increase that?

31- has been going to all the meetings. Wrote the isthmus piece. Key to system is choice riders. Praises konkel for cutting “highway budget”. Gas tax is not a user fee.

32-opposed to two-fare price structure. Rattled off other cities’ bus fares. Simpson-purtham(?) model. Elasticity models.

33- Childhood obsesity. Look out for those less fortunate. Supporting and promoting mass transit promotes the common good.

34- doesn’t have a car. Is now finding himself get a ride to and from work. Support the TPC decision.

35- sent out a survey to all the alders + the mayor (who didn’t respond)

36- business model vs. public service model.

37- climate change motivations.

38- SOS senior council. Senior citizens & disabled incomes.

39- Burt Zipperer- IZ. Can the state give us some funds. Cul-de-sac tax. Busses are a public service.

40- environmental reasons. Talks about elasticity. Dave is making faces over his data analysis. Negative externalities: emissions. Classic economics elasticity problem.

41- 1971 levels of ridership. (in numbers or percentages??) carbon emissions. 2% drop starting now.

42- historical rundown of east vs west service provisions. Not really against it. Wants better service. Restore the service.

43- change in service really bothers her. No similar care taken for bus system as taken for bike system.

44- drop the other shoe and raise the parking fees.

______________15 min break (apx. 10:30pm)____________________________

Alders come back to ask questions of city staff (and of each other).

Konkel: Structure of low-income fare distribution system. How is this going to work? Lottery system? Distributions issues regarding staffing and accessibility to people who cannot be standing in line at 8am due to family or work situations.

Clear: aren’t their more service hours now? Answer: sort of. Redistribution of service.

Ridership and revenue.

Cnare: how can we know the income level of ridership? What are the expectations of a marketing manager? What will they have created by the end of the year.

Palm: senior rates being different than the regular rates. How do you conceptualize new bus routes and issues about 2^nd shift service.

Schumacher: hybrid busses not being such a high priority and how it relates to the fare increase. Public good vs. business model. What’s the breakdown between fares and public support. Fares=25%, 35% state of WI, 12% from Feds, balance = local funds

Compton: my constituents weren’t here tonight, largely due to a lack of service on the east side. With that, what am I going to get for this increase?

Clausius: how long will it take to rebuild the contingency fund?

Konkel: issues around contingency funds. Questions to City Attorney over legality/language of proposed ordinance.

Solomon: has a spreadsheet and data analysis he’s prepared. Potential 500,000 loss in ridership. If kept fares at $1.50, and with 6% growth, could bring in $240,000 in revenue.

[… I don’t want to list too many details, for fear of butchering it. Without his spreadsheet in front of me, it’s hard to type up the details. ]

His basic point: if we raise fares, we could still have a deficit. Issues with contingency fund structure.

Gruber: don’t stress for those of you still here listening, your public comments are shaping the discussions to be had in the future. Proud of all the alders for embracing new ideas and change. …opportunities to grow. … is quoting Obama on issues of sustainability. Call to fund basic city service and argues metro is a basic city service.

Schumacher: is questioning Solomon’s numbers & data analysis.Metro staff is answering... and is getting into issues of standard deviations (glad I was an econ major...) Schumacher's back to call questions to Solomon's numbers, and issues regarding local useage and models have been put forth over the past few month

Solomon is now answering back. Chuck and him have had a discussion on this data for the past 4 months. "It's a guessing game". Has another handout to hand out. People start laughing. Discussions on AFTA (spelling?).. and negative standard deviations...

Sandborn: discussion on external costs to this proposal. Brings up Monona Terrace public hearing and HUGE focus on public speakers on service issues. Believes in supporting the measure to help stop the gutting of metro.

Palm: we support metro with our property tax dollars. its a great discussion, but not the discussion he wants to have... previous discussions, in vacuum of the budget process. Issues of service within his district. No busses on Monona Drive. RTA. Supports raising downtown parking structure. Library is important, and comparable in costs. If library board had gotten $400,000, they'd be falling off their seats in amazement. This is why these discussions are had in terms of the budget process. Look at budgeting issues as a whole. Wants to defer to Metro staff. Wants to see increased service to increase ridership. Will support, thinks this plan is the best to have come forward.

Clear: Alternate elasticity models. brings up Solomon's model, says its a "scare tactic", says Metro staff did a very good job of refuting Solomon's model. says we "vote differently" from citizen commissions, such as plan commission.

Carr: praises that there were 56 speakers. calls out Schumacher (and Clear?) for his/their tone against Solomon. ... is going to vote against the proposal. doesn't like the idea of voting against the TPC. Likes Konkel's points/quesitons about low-income distribution system. has faith in Kemp's staff to see that that happens.

Konkel: agrees with Carr about importance of the people that came out to speak tonight. All the data boils down to a range. What's the worst case scenario? we could lose ridership, cut services and still end up short of funds, even after a raise in fares. We're not rewarding the riders that are riding. We're losing the faith of the riders. Story after story of poor rider experience. Risk doesn't seem worth it. There are a lot of unknowns to this proposal. In any other circumstances, the council would be asking a ton of questions, but here not so much. Very concerned about legal actions coming out of overriding the TPC. Could be puting some of our federal funding at risk. Didn't have the proper fare-raising hearings.

Pham-Remele: asked to have her name removed as co-sponsor, because she didn't want to be considered a set vote. Wanted to learn directly about issue. Asked for route proposals that might come out of this increase.... digresses and mentions the busses in her home country. Trusts the Metro staff to answer honestly. Many of her constituents consitently support Metro. Has seen divided opinions even in same families. Needs solutions. She's not hearing the solutions. Is discussing service issues in regard to time and money. Doesn't want to see Metro back here in 6 months asking for more money. Will vote to support it. "We need it, and we need to move on." Put the money where we believe. Asks "Mr. Mayor" to go to the vote... doesn't make a formal motion...

Webber: remember, the $2 fare will NOT get any district extra service. Maybe one additional route in the downtown area. Will not solve issues of additional/off-peak service. Discusses a CNN correspondent who's trying to live for a month off of food stamps, and how that extra $25 a month that this proposal would bring is a huge deal. Issues of low-income riders who can't come up with $27 at one time to pay the pass rate over the single ridership rate. .. Dodged a bullet on EPA... road and water and air quality issues. You simply won't get people to ride the buss, if you raise fares. Is going out soon to DC to lobby on transportation. Thinks the transportation landscape will be a lot different in a year (at the national/local level).

Gruber: missed his comments

Cnare: Many people still don't see the bus as a positive service.... issues of service. Half of her district has no bus service, and won't for at least 5 years. Is going to support this tonight. Praise for Webber. Praise for Solomon for bringing some numbers to the table.

Rummel: 1/5 of the people tonight came from district 6. cannot support this measure. 5000 people is a lot of people that cannot afford this. perfect model breakdown of how this affects a couple. wants to dip into $24 million Rainy day fund. ("Because it's a rainy day"). TPC is a quasi-utility. overruling them hasn't happened in 30 years.

Rhode-Connway: 83 people registered, 75 against the measure. Metro is a basic service. should prioritize transit. wants to keep fares low to increase ridership. is in support of respecting TPC decision making process. wants to speak to civility, and of the tones other alders are using against other alders and her. need to be able to diagree without being disagreable. no matter how late the hour, lets all try to respect one another.

Schumacher: been listening for the last 3 months, and tonight. Talking about his experience of issues getting ridership agreement with Verona and working with non profits. Wants to reject the notion that we're stepping on all the poor people if we raise fares. We're in a structural decifict. Strong supporter of RTA, user tax, etc. We'll need leadership in the next year when it comes to transportation. Talk about bus system & RTA over rail system & RTA. Tracking the youth from Waunakee to the north side of Madison. 50 cent increase is on a full single fare ticket.

Solomon: Do we really want to overrule the TPC? There is only one reason to raise fares, to get revenue. Everyone wants better service. Why risk it, when best case will... get us little. If 5 alders have said we want to trust, support the staff, let's do that by supporting the TPC.

Clear: Let's hear it for Lisa Subek for her work. She took a courageous position to file the citizen appeal, even though it didn't gain her any friends. Best thing is to have

Cieslewicz: wants to address a few things and put them into context. 33% increase. but fares haven't been adjusted for inflation. last adjust in 2000, and so 33% increase matches inflation since that time.

public support through tax support has increased, as has parking/ramp rates. since 2000, the cost of fuel has risen (226%?? i might have heard that wrong).
apples to apples. albany & rodchester charges $1 everytime you get on the bus. Dayton charges 25 cents for transfers... continues onward with other cities.

Rochester notes: 4 years ago they got about what we did ($16 million), but now they get $32 million. ah, NY politics. Students charged $2.25 per student.

holiday service cuts would bring apx. $150,000

RTA: even if we get a referendum, but it won't take place til 2010, won't affect the city budgets til 2012.

Elasticity arguments: facinating debate. but: loss of ridership isn't against this fare increase, its an argument against any fare increase.

recapping his budget process from the fall. $1.50 vs. $1.75 vs. $2.00. marketing position would get small businesses involved to get their employees into bus system. able to add to our reserves. have been "decimated" over past couple years due to gas expenses. 400 people getting discount is nothing to sneeze at. while none of the choices were easy, given the 3 tough choices, this was the one to go with.

process: normally process works that community recommends something, and we vote on it. but this is unique because we voted on a budget, then TPC effectively vetoed our decisision. City Attorney says this bill is a mess and needs clarification.

Praises Solomon for his data.

Vote time!
______________

Motion Carries, 11-8

And the race goes on..

2009-02-18T10:19:00.003-06:00

Wow! Last night was very exciting. I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who came out and voted last night (whether in District 2 or elsewhere). It was a very tight race for us here on the east isthmus, but I can't imagine being one of the two candidates in the Fitchburg mayoral primary with a one-vote margin. I think last night really showed (once again) that your vote absolutely matters.

We worked so hard yesterday to encourage folks to come out and vote. I was out starting at 4:30am putting door knocker throughout the entire district, and continued throughout the entire day talking with people all over the district, either on the phone or out knocking on their door. It's definitely been interesting to be a candidate right after the presidential election. I hope that all of the close races last night really reinforced to folks that voting locally is very powerful and should be taken seriously. 3 of the 4 wards last night had expected, if not slightly higher numbers than 2007.

And so, the race goes on... I'm very excited to be moving forward, and I've had great conversations about the future leading up to April 7th. Thank you again to all of the great support and volunteers I've had in this campaign, and my biggest thanks goes to the voters. Thank you!

President's Day is when? A belated Valentine's to all...

2009-02-15T21:20:00.006-06:00

So I worked really hard to get the resources and put together a knock-out mailer to send out to a ton of folks before Tuesday's election... and the mail gods are conspiring against me.

I have the postal form, signed by the postmaster, saying that the mailers have a postmark date of Thursday. I expected them to take one day, possibly 2 days to arrive. But by Saturday, no mailers had arrived to voters. This evening, we also realized that tomorrow is President's Day, and thus, there's no mail tomorrow either. Great. At the very earliest they'll arrive is on election day. At this point though there's nothing I can do... except ask for a postage refund.

So for your viewing pleasure, here is my mailer, in all of its glory. Please enjoy.

(PS. President's Day is not recognized as a city holiday, according to the City of Madison's website, so the Clerk's office will be open for early voting and other voting services, to the best of my knowledge).

She's alive!

2009-02-12T19:07:00.002-06:00

So the Statue of Liberty is coming along nicely. Got a lot of it put up in a marathon 8 hour session today. More today. Kristian at the Isthmus should have something up on it later tonight.

on a HUGE note:
I GOT THE BADGER HERALD ENDORSEMENT TODAY!!

Doors, phones & yard signs are going well. I'm really excited for Tuesday. Now we have to figure out where to have the party.

Live from Lapham Elementary, it's Thursday night!

2009-02-04T23:10:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow evening, Thursday, February 5th is the Candidate Forum that the Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association is putting on. If you've been looking for a way to learn more about me, I'd really like to encourage you to attend this event if you're able.

I went to the TLNA meeting tonight for as much time as I could. I had my 6pm Badger Herald meeting run long, and I had my sailing club Board of Captains meeting I came late to so I could go listen to version 2.0 of Michael Matty's proposal for my (600) block of E Johnson Street. The density is down, a new developer with additional resource incentives is involved, but the committee members still had a number of very valid and thought-provoking concerns with the proposal, and full-time students would be excluded from living there due to the housing assistance grants the project would make use of... We'll see what develops. I'm following this project very closely with several neighbors of mine.

The Statue of Liberty is really taking off, and I'm putting in some major hours making sure everything gets taken care of and goes smoothly.
Here's some recent news articles on the statue (one penned by yours truly!)

The Capital Times
The Isthmus
The Badger Herald

It's been really great to see how many people are so excited for this to happen. It seems to be making a lot of people's days.

On the election front, I had coffee today with a very august community member who had a lot of really great advice on all-things regarding the City of Madison. I'd also like to announce that former District 2 Alder Dave Wallner and his wife, arts activist Anne Katz have endorsed me for the District 2 seat!

Everyday on this election has been such a rewarding, empowering experience! I've been so excited to talk with neighbors and business owners and find out their stories. I had a really great talk with the owner of Company of Thieves yesterday, and I'm working on putting together a coffee meet-and-greet for this Sunday, February 8th for all the neighbors. I'll post up the details when I have them.

Hope to see you tomorrow night at the debate!
B

Big steps forward, little steps back

2009-01-29T16:22:00.003-06:00

We have an on-campus location to repair the statue!
Next up: getting trucks to move it, buying repair supplies and get a volunteer schedule going.

Had a great time at the TLNA potluck last night. I'm working on holding onto my voice... I've been out in a lot of chill air lately, and it started to go on me last night.

Doors have been good. Folks have been sending messages my way. I'm looking forward to the debate next week.

Had to laugh a bit at the Daily Page blog... oh, if only they knew... Halloween was a herculean effort to pull off, given the circumstances, not unlike this statue project. I think an alder should possess many hats and many talents. Formal public policy training, communications background, direct work experience, community leadership, executive board experience, lots of energy and motivation... what else could you ask for?

Now, I'm off to a meeting, followed by doors, followed by another meeting, followed by research.. I'm very happy the weather is warmer.

Letters of Hope & the Power of Miss Liberty

2009-01-25T01:50:00.006-06:00

It's been a very busy week for me with the campaign, my job and my work with Hoofers (more below). My appologies if you've been constantly reloading my website looking for new content. ;)

I've been getting a number of responses and letters from folks, some of whom are good friends, but a surprising amount of correspondence from folks I've never met, or met in passing. I thought I'd share a couple letters here.

" Dear Bridget,
It was a pleasure to meet you at the recent Dane Dems meeting. I checked out your website & it looks good. I have met all the candidates in your race at various times (except for Dennis DeNure [sic]) and I think you are the best one."

"Ms. Maniaci,

I recently relocated to Madison from [redacted] with my wife who is pursuing [redacted]at UW. I have not had time for civic involvement and am embarrassingly ignorant of local government in the city. While reading the Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association Newsletter I saw an ad for Brenda Konkel who apparently is the alderman representing district 2. I visited her website and read where she is executive director of the Tenant Resource Center. My wife and I contacted the Tenant Resource Center during Sept last year with concerns about our landlord's failure to address deficiencies in our apartment. It took the Tenant Resource Center ONE MONTH to return our call. By this point we resolved the situation and no longer needed their services. My experience with Ms. Konkel belies her campaign slogan touting "accountability." After further researching her tenure in city government it's obvious she is an iconoclastic malcontent who should be replaced. I have reviewed the websites for the other candidates running for district 2 alderman and am impressed with your knowledge of local issues and obvious passion for the community. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to assist with your campaign. I have attached my contact information. Best of luck with your campaign."

"Bridget,
Hopefully this small donation will get you elected to the council. Who knows, maybe this is the first step to the White House."

"i should say i really respect the hell out of you for doing this. Running for office is a big deal and it takes good people to do it. Good luck, keep going. We need more good people to keep on running.

you have more courage then me."

I've noticed that a number of candidates in this race are playing the "so-and-so endorsed me" card. I've had really mixed opinions about pursuing such a strategy, and as a homeowner at a party I was at this evening said; "That doesn't mean anything to me. I don't know who these people are. Unless they're public officials, they could be their friends for all I know."

So I feel like these quotes are an excellent compromise between demonstrating honest enthusiasm for my candidacy, and just listing quotes for the sake of listing quotes. These are from real voters, and their thoughts are more pressing than their names.

And on that note, I received the following email this evening:

"Bridget -

One of the other candidates in your race has asked for my endorsement. I wanted to extend the courtesy of hearing you out before I make a decision, if you're interested."

I was really grateful to the elected official who sent this to me. I've really been working to run a solid, respectful, fair campaign, and it's really nice to see it paying off. I think I'm a really great fit to represent this neighborhood as its alder, and it's been really rewarding to receive the correspondence like what I've listed above.

Today was a productive day of doing doors.

I met with a neighbor a block from my house who had run into Sherman earlier in the day while at Pinkus McBride. She said he had very nicely printed lit pieces, with lots of words that said absolutely nothing. She seemed genuinely dismayed at what she had been handed, and was very interested in talking with me about the neighborhood. Late in the day when I was all out of lit pieces, I swung into Pinkus to pick up some groceries and to warm up, and chatted with the guy behind the counter. He showed me the piece that Sherman had handed them. It was very nicely printed, gleaming white cardstock with some color, but I had to agree with the neighbor down the street that it didn't say much. Sherman is still a mystery to me.

I had a very interesting conversation with a lady also a block down from me. In her 40s, she and her husband had come to Madison on a whim in the aftermath of Huricane Katrina. We had a very productive conversation about the social services available here. She said she had absolutely no complaints with Madison. She said they went from having absolutely nothing, to managing a one bedroom apartment (negotiating with the local landlord to pay a little extra each month because they didn't have the money for a deposit), and now, being able to move downstairs to a two bedroom. She said she keeps telling her 18 and 19 year old children who are in Tennesee that they need to move here because there's all kinds of opportunities available to them here.

She talked about her experience with the food pantries and the local churches, about the public transportation (which surprisingly, she said she had no problems with.. usually that's not what you hear from folks), and her experience living up on the north side of Madison (a recovered addict, prevalient crime & drugs pushed her to move downtown and away from the blight she had personally fought so hard to be rid of.) You could tell she was very, very happy and at peace, finally finding a corner in the world to happily call home. She's trained as a medical records specialist, and is working to find a position at one of the three local hospitals, or with the related state health agencies. I really really wish her the best of luck.

I'm going to look into what it will take for her to be able to vote. All of their expenses are included in their rent, the original lease has wandered off, with no copies made, her cable bill is in her husband's name, and her Wisconsin ID has her old address on it. I'm hopeful there's another form of registered mail that the polls will accept. I have a feeling I'll be dropping in to see how she's doing very soon.

Not long after this, I had a conversation with a lady about Madison Metro. I started talking to her about who I was, and my experience working in city hall, and she siezed upon my mention of Mayor Dave to rip into a very impassioned speech about how she was appalled at the proposed fifty cent fare raise, appalled with Dave, appalled at the state of the bus service, at the number of SUVs with one person in them she sees driving to downtown and the isthmus every morning. Nothinig she said I disagreed with, I guess I was just a little taken aback by her tone. I talked to her about my hope for a Regional Transit Authority to actually start to happen now that the state legislature has fully flipped to the dems. In many ways, I do believe that the only way to solve the transportation issues facing Dane County is to create an RTA. We won't gain the ridership we need to fully fund service without including the outlying areas in meaningful ways. Inclusive public transportation options would no doubt help the number of car jackings that have been on the rise in Sun Prairie and Fitchburg.

I lived in Milwaukee my freshman year of college without a car, and I was completely able to go anywhere I wanted. Bayshore, Brookfield, Franklin, Wauwatosa, West Allis, it was all readily available in a easy-to-understand, efficient system. I got to school everyday by the #30 bus that ran every 10 minutes. I was able to go 15+ blocks to campus in 10 minutes time. If I missed a bus, it wasn't a big deal, another one was along in no time. I was able to go home every day for lunch and save my limited funds by not eating restaurant food on campus.

When I transfered to Madison, it was a very different story. My apartment on Erin Street (similarly distanced off-campus to my Milwaukee apartment) was serviced by the #4 bus that ran every half-hour. If I missed the bus, it was a very long walk to campus and completely threw off my schedule, making me late for class or work and putting me in a really bad mood. It got to the point where I was just getting tons of parking tickets because I couldn't rely on the bus to get to class, and I just parked where I could find space. I never went home for lunch because it turned into an hour and a half ordeal, and I couldn't afford that much time away from campus. I started eating all my meals on campus and state street. I was working a lot (30 hours a lot of weeks) so I was able to afford $25+ a day on food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. To say the least, it was stressful, and eating that much prepared food was not very healthy, nor did it help my finances.

When it was nice, I rode my bike (btw, Brooks Street has a lot of bumps & potholes!) and really liked it, but we're in Wisconsin, and vast times of the year biking was just very impractical.

So I understood exactly the concerns of the bus system that the lady I spoke with today expressed... but she seemed very made up in her opinions, and my association with Dave I think made me very suspicious in her book. Which is unfortunate, because I think I'd really work to make the changes she'd like to see. Oh well, you can't win them all...

I also heard a very concerning story about the actions of one of my fellow candidates. I'm going to be looking into it very thoroughly to see if it has any merit. I really hope it's not true. Time will tell.

After all the door knocking, and Pinkus, I headed home to get cleaned up and go to a party for the sailing club and its instructors out at some friends' house on Sherman Avenue. I was surprized how many folks at the party all lived in my district. It was really nice to be able to talk with people you know and speak about issues that mean a lot to you, and to them. It was also nice to get out and socialize for a change... running in a race like this really cuts into personal time to hang out.

And now I'm home, and wired on soda. I'm working on some newspaper questionnares for some upcoming stories, and working on a ton(!) of items related to Hoofers.

You heard it here first: I'm working with a bunch of people to bring back the Statue of Liberty from the Pail and Shovel era to the ice of Lake Mendota for Valentine's Day weekend (and possibly longer) during Hoofer's Winter Carnival. Dane County is currently in possession of it (folks got tired of storing it in their barns.. and the original barn it was in in 1984 was destroyed in the Barneveld tornado), and they'd like to pass it (back) along to Hoofers, because they're really unable to store it any longer. The building it's in is being torn down ASAP. We've been working on trying to make this happen for months, and it's finally all coming together.

So, the week leading up to the election is going to be incredibly busy for me. Right now I'm working on space reservation requests, an ice shanty permit from the city, finding accessible, heated construction space on campus, working on nailing down the funding sources for the $500-$1000 in estimated repair expenses (the mice/racoons had their way with the styrofoam), and organizing volunteers and a repair schedule. A club member is working on getting donated trucks to transport it all.

What's great about the whole thing is that the county completely rebuilt the torch in 2004 out of welded aluminum, instead of the structurally unsound 2x4s it had originally. Because some forward-thinking individual took the time to cover the torch with thick plastic sheeting, the paint surface is pristine, and it appears the torch will only need minimal attention. It's really ready to be hoisted immediately. The styrofoam head on the other hand will need a ton of cleaning, repair and a new paint-job. We've got a ton of volunteers, and as more people find out about what we're working on, they're really excited for it.

I went to the High Noon Saloon Tuesday night for their Inaugural party, and was talking with Stu Levitan. I explained what I was working on and he said "Oh! Well Chris here was originally involved in building it.." Two seats down from me was the guy that actually knew how to put all the jumbled mass of puzzle pieces I had seen earlier that day together. In fact, he was the one that originally was in charge of the construction of the support structure. I was so excited to meet someone who could understand what went where, what the numbering system meant, and what the random bits of screws, bolts & washer system were for. I flipped through my camera, showing him what had become of the statue. Chris was blown away that the statue was still around and that we were looking to get it back out on the ice. He never anticipated the popularity of the statue to take off as it did.

I'm going to give him a call tomorrow to see how he'd like to be involved with puting the statue together. With his help, I believe we can tentatively assemble it (indoors) in about 2 hours. From that point it will require a lot of cleaning, repairs and painting.

While showing him the photos I had taken, he commented that the original sculpturist was able to get it accurately to scale because her grandfather had been the lighthouse keeper on the island where the real statue of liberty sits, and they had access to historical documents. I thought that was really neat.

I also contacted a lady who I was told was the originaly creator of the statue and spoke with her about it. The story goes that her and her roomate came up with the idea, and her roomate's boyfriend and his friend were the one's that built it.

I've noticed that somewhere along the way Leon Varjian and James Mallon got all the credit for the statue, and it got tied into this narritive about Pail & Shovel policy platforms. What I'm discovering is that the story is a lot more nuanced than "Leon promised to bring the statue of liberty to Madison" and it involved a lot of people.

The statue was a very special thing for the two women that envisioned it. In the 90s, one of the ladies passed away from cancer, and for her friend, the statue is forever tied to her memory, and their college days together. She really wants to help see the statue get back up on the ice.

It's the 30th anniversary of the statue, and it's a great year for democracy, it's only fitting to bring back this Madison icon, especially for Valentine's Day.

If I lose my election for City Council because I'm working on this, it might just be worth it. This is such a great community-building, quintessential Madisonian project. I'm really excited and proud to be a part of the tradition... and if it's true that the Daily Cardinal staff was involved with the 1979 torching of the original statue, I think it's only fitting that on it's 30th anniversary, it's a Daily Cardinal alumni that's bringing it back to the community.

See you on the campaign trail! (or under the statue... enjoy the picures!)

Snowbank: 1, Bridget: 0

2009-01-18T11:44:00.004-06:00

Yesterday's trek out into the balmy 28 degree weather hit a snag about 10 minutes after I started knocking on doors: I landed head-first in a snow bank in high style. Lit pieces, maps, pens, and myself went everywhere when the inch-higher walk up to a front door was conveniently masked by a thin layer of snow. My boot caught the edge of the walk, and I went flying. The only saving grace was that no one happened to be walking by to see my spectacular fall. I had a good laugh about it though, and promptly picked my self up and dusted off the wet snow from every surface conceivable.

The gentleman who's house I was at laughed and said, "Well now I really have to vote for you, don't I?" as I handed him a snow-dampened lit piece.

After my memorable beginning, Saturday proceeded well. I met a lady that knew my grandparents, so that was really neat.

Again, I noticed the number of houses up for sale, but Saturday had a hopeful air about it. A house on Baldwin had a couple furiously peering into the windows and staring at the roof from out on the sidewalk. I think they were out there for a good 20 minutes.

A condo building I was at had a lady showing her condo to a gentleman who lives in the neighborhood, and then a half hour later, the same lady showed up to look at a house I was at around the corner. The Sidney Street neighborhood is a tight bunch of neighbors. I've already heard a number of stories about neighbors moving up and down the street. Saturday I saw it.

I'm hopeful that this spring and summer will produce a healthy real estate market. There's too many empty and struggling homes for sale.

Today and the upcoming week is a busy one for me. I'm looking forward to the League of Women Voters candidate taping on Friday, and there's a number of events and interviews between then and now. I'm hoping to post as much as possible.. and avoid any more snowbanks!

I'm very, very excited for the inauguration on Tuesday. I'm trying to figure out what bar I want to be at come noon-time. I'm debating between the Old Fashioned and the Argus. Tuesday night a number of friends will be at the High Noon celebration. I'll be finding myself there. Vicky Selkowe is the hostess. It sounds like it will be a great event, and I'm really looking forward to having a reason to go out and get a drink. Friday night was excellent family, quiet and organizational time for me. Saturday night I got home from doors and proceeded to follow up on a number of campaign items, curled in a big blanket.

With the insanely cold temperatures, this last week has been a killer for going out and doing doors. Yesterday marked t-minus one month to the election, and more extreme cold spells will wreck havoc on my campaigning. I have a feeling folks will think my judgement is less than sound if I'm out in -15 degree weather. There's a line to devotion before it crosses into craziness, and I'm pretty sure negative degree weather is that line.

Plus, like I said earlier, I'm trying to avoid a repeat of last February and being sick at all costs. My health is a lot more important than knocking on a couple of doors.

Happy Sunday!

When I say "Vote!" you say "Bridget!"

2009-01-16T00:41:00.008-06:00

It's been a cold couple of days, the best to read up on issues and strategy with a big blanket curled around me. I was sick for most of February last year, and I'm doing everything possible to avoid a similar situation this year -which means you won't find me out in today's below-zero weather. The League of Women voters candidate taping is next Friday, and I want to be in top shape.

The lovely folks at Dane101 curled up around their audio recorder to tape a podcast about different city issues. Bear through the uhm, interesting, discussion on public urination (!) for a very worthwhile state of the city debate, and opinions on the District 2 race.

I was happy that in their discussion of District 2's race, they had no problem remembering my name (Bridget Maniaci), and could pronounce it. It seems that my primary goal of getting my name out there and distinguishing myself from the other candidates however will continue.

A couple of thoughts from this candidate's desk.

1) Emily & Michael nailed it. Yes, the challengers in this race have the common point that we are not impressed with Ms. Konkel's leadership style. While it's an easy point to make, there's a lot more to this race than just that point. I don't think it should be the only reason to be running in this race, and I don't blame E&M at this point for not saying much else. I haven't heard much of anything else from anyone else in this race. I take my candidacy very seriously, and so I cringed when I heard Emily & Michael's assessment of the candidates as one big indistinguishable lump.

So to start, here's why I'm the best District 2 candidate, and why I'm distinguished:
(*steps to the soapbox a la Mr. Milk..)

- I'm in the race because I can absolutely serve as a committed, informed alder from day one.

- I can bring more to the table than my other challengers, with a potent combination of City Hall experience, detailed enthusiasm and a depth of community knowledge.

- I'm offering tangible goals and policies I'd like to see implemented in our neighborhood: increased street-lighting, a grocery store built, improved parking and foot-traffic to the East Johnson Street businesses. In addition to...

- I am the most viable challenger because I have better existing working relationships with city staff and administrators than any other challenger in this race, and, I argue, better than Ms. Konkel.

- Regardless of who's at fault over the breakdown of the relationship between the District 2 Alder and the Mayor, their relationship has not improved as time has gone on, and I don't believe it will improve anytime soon. This is a great disservice to the neighborhood, and it needs to change with new leadership. Otherwise the neighborhood will continue to suffer. I absolutely believe I am the strongest candidate in the field to offer a better working relationship on behalf of District 2 to city hall.

-Neighbors will only vote for a challenger in this election if they feel confident that the candidate will be adept, informed and effective as a council member. If I didn't think I'd qualify under those standards, I would have never entered the race. Disliking Brenda's style isn't enough to earn me (or any other challenger) a majority of votes.

-As much as I genuinely believe that the neighborhood needs to have a discussion on its aldermanic leadership, with no competitive race held since 2003, I want to make it clear, I'm in this race to win it. I wouldn't waste voter's time if I didn't believe I was a legitimate candidate for the seat.

-I hope the horse-race moniker being attached to me as "the Mayor's intern" doesn't do me a great disservice and simplify who I am and my talent and knowledge I bring to this position. It's an easy title to attach, but again, I'm no lackey. Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm very able to stand on my own two feet and take positions on my own, and frequently do.

2) I am 25 years old. (Not 24.) I don't believe age correlates at all in this election, or to the effectiveness of an alder. I've lived on the east-side of Madison since 1993. Consider my youthful energy and joy de vivre a great blessing, and I believe it disguises my extensive working knowledge of city issues, plus I'm just taking Brenda's suggestion and "taking hold of my power" . A big part of my college experience at UW was being engaged in city and Dane Co. issues.

Being a member of the city council takes a lot of energy, and youthful passion is an asset, to be sure. Some of the most creative ordinances and beneficial leadership have come from young alders throughout the history of the council.
- Soglin was mayor by 28.
- Yeadon decriminalized pot & took up gay-rights anti-discrimination.
- Verveer spearheaded all-things downtown, especially mediating conflicts with students such as the Mifflin Street Block Party in the mid-90s.
- Austin King was 25 when he left office, and had served as council president.
- Most recently, Eli Judge has passed a number of smart, meaningful policies that have been well-conceived responses to issues facing his district, the textbook ordinance, the Downtown Lighting Initiative, his idea for a landlord rating system. I'm really sad that I won't get a chance to serve with him. It would have been a powerhouse relationship, I'm convinced. But I believe District 8 will have a motivated, intelligent alder for the 2009-2011 term, and I enthusiastically look forward to working with all of the alders. The position's demands are absolutely worth it, in my eyes, and I won't be the first or last passionate, effective young alder.

3) On a lighter note: I'm a fan of no-drama, so on face-value, I'll take a "kumbaya drum circle" over a pot-luck throwdown, but I'll warn that I'm a very competitive chef... the neighborhood Winter Potluck at Lapham is fast approaching January 28th, and my last name dictates I should bring a "side dish, fruit or vegetable". I'm already in Top-Chef planning mode. We'll see what recipe I decide on. I usually gravitate towards dessert, with my huge sweet-tooth, but I'm definitely up for the challenge. I'm curious to know who would be Tenney-Lapham's Tom Colicchio in a candidate judging contest? We're really lacking for notable district restaurants outside of the Avenue Bar now that Fyfe's is gone. Would our cooking challenge involve a king-crab leg special and an Old Fashioned marinade?

4) There were more serious matters I was planning on discussing, but on the thought of an Old Fashioned marinade, I'll let my brain rest. Tomorrow is fast approaching, and this is already long enough.

I'm curious to see how the bus-fair shakes out. Kristin hit yet-another article out of the park in summing up the current debate.

My own On Kawara, and notes On the Waterfront

2009-01-13T12:18:00.004-06:00

My friend Nick came over and put his artistic talents to work on my living room window Sunday night. It was a pretty exciting thing to watch, my name being painted in big letters announcing to the world to go vote (for Maniaci!).

I went to the Cork 'n Bottle's weekly Saturday wine tasting and had a very long, interesting discussion with a guy by the name of Bob that I loosely knew through some neighbors during college. He's now the cheese buyer for Fromagination. Bob's a pretty far-left kind of a guy and we had a very interesting discussion. Among the many issues we discussed, he talked about his concern for the levels of fluoride the City of Madison adds to the drinking water supply. I know that I had read an article once upon a time on the issue, so I understood what he was talking about. He expressed interest in seeing if other folks were concerned with it, and if it was worth trying to pursue on a larger level of organization.

Sunday I went out and started knocking on doors close to my house and worked my way up the isthmus. I introduced myself to one gentleman and he said "Oh, yeah, I heard about this, I checked out your website." That was neat to hear. I'm glad people are having a positive reception to the race and are seeking out information. He was good to talk with.

I spoke with long time Madison resident and musician Hanah Jon Taylor about the houses the City of Madison owns at James Madison Park. He expressed frustration that he hasn't been able to work out a sales arrangement with the city to purchase the house he lives in and rents. I'm surprised that the city hasn't wanted to try to work out a rent-to-own arrangement with him, for the amount of rent he's paying, its equal to a mortgage payment, but I don't know the full story behind the situation. He seems very keen on wanting to buy the house as soon as he's able. He also discussed with me his vision for turning the empty Collins House into a neighborhood arts and community center. I think it's a wonderful idea, but it will require a lot of financial backing to get it off the ground, and then I'm curious how it would support itself after it was open. Taylor previous ran the Madison Center for Creative & Cultural Arts next to the old White Horse Inn, which closed due to a lack of resources.

(In full discloser, the landlord of the property was John Hutchinson, owner of Fontana. The father of my campaign treasurer. I mentioned that to Mr. Taylor when we were speaking.)

Here's some background information on the three properties in question. It looks to date from about 2006. Dave Blaska had some ideas on what the city could do with it. Heh.

Here's the October 2nd,2008 James Madison Park Planning Committee agenda with lots of excellent linked documents about the process, and Kristin's Cap Times article summarizing the committee's November vote against selling the land.

After speaking with Mr. Taylor, I went next door to the house next to his that has renters, and spoke with a nice, young couple about their experience living in the City of Madison owned house. The rent is good, nearly identical to my apartment around the corner with similar amenities, and they're on the lake. They liked that the rent was month to month (! in Madison?!) because they were about to head off to Costa Rica for 4 months, and needed a place they could move out of mid-winter. They did discuss with me a number of the maintenance issues (large & small) they and their neighbors have had with the management company the city has hired to oversee the properties. I guess I'd like to see a more attentive property management group, because the property was tired looking, and I wasn't happy to hear that the response-time on issues was slow.

After these two houses, I had gone less than a block in an hour's time, and so I started down the street. I knocked on some doors, simply left fliers at others. The good thing with the snow is you can tell who's home and who's not from the tire tracks and footprints.

I noticed how many houses are up for sale. I found my dream house on Livingston Street. Everything I would want and hope for the houses in our neighborhood (well, maybe another half-bath). According to the older lady across the street I spoke with, there's a pair of landlords from the Fox River Valley area (I think) that own a couple of houses on the block. They renovated the house, had "some nice college boys" renting it, and then put it up for sale in the summertime and nothing has happened. It looks very nice, perfect for a family with a nice yard, and it's been totally renovated. I loved the 3 (!) porches to it. The neighbor thought they had it listed for under $200,000, although the realtor's site has it at $250,000. I really hope the credit markets free up, because it's a great home for a young family.

There's a number of very large lake mansions up for sale as I walked on Livingston, on Sherman Ave. and then up by Russel's Walk. So not only are the vacating student-housing properties having issues, the large single-family homes are having issues as well. I'd be curious to know exactly how soft the housing market on the isthmus is right now.

Well, I need to get going. I need to go buy some nice, warm socks, because while the rest of me has been doing okay with the cold weather, my feet have been in agony after several hours outside. Warmer socks are definitely in order. If the weather gets as cold as they're predicting, I might just stay home this week and call on people by telephone.

Cheers!

The definition of 'Riot' and my City

2009-01-11T00:05:00.009-06:00

ri⋅ot [rahy-uht]
–noun
a noisy, violent public disorder caused by a group or crowd of persons, as by a crowd protesting against another group, a government policy, etc., in the streets.

So I started this blog in 2007 because I wanted to talk about living in Madison, but to be honest, I didn't quite know what to write about. I picked the topic of live music in Madison because I thought it was a safe topic. And it was safe. So safe, I got bored with it, or I took little interest and was sloppy and half-hearted in my writing when I bothered to write at all.

I am writing to you now because I should have just wrote what I know best and love -politics. If you don't know by now, my name is Bridget Maniaci, and I am currently a candidate for Alderwoman in District 2 of Madison, and this is my blog.

I named this blog Riot in the City because so many of my memories of Madison are of masses of people. We are a city that loves our "riots," good and bad. I think of riots as masses of people with voices raised. Packed bars, sweaty concerts, crowded basements, Halloween, Concerts on the Sqaure, flamingos flooding Bascom Hall, Crazylegs, the Dane Co. Farmer's Market, its all a mass of good people with voices raised saying this is what we believe in. I think its only an apt title for a citizen looking to represent this city of creative, vivacious, principled people.

I've decided to open this blog up to my true political passions and my candidacy process because I know that I can't be the best person, or candidate, if I feel my voice is stifled, even if I'm the one doing the muffling. I was told by someone who's been in politics for many years that I should remove my blog because such unfiltered thoughts are unbecoming of a new candidate. And I did, or, well, some of it. And then I had my father emailing me to tell me where to place my commas on my campaign website, and I thought, enough is enough (Plus Dave started a blog this week, and he's the Mayor).

Tonight I took the Christmas advice of a family friend and went and saw the movie Milk. The movie made many very clear political points that hit home with me. One of them is that if there's issues important to you, you don't become more reserved. You get out the megaphone and lead a parade down the street, you get everyone you know, and everyone they know, involved, and you work to create real change.

While I don't think I'll be leading a parade anytime soon, it was a wake up call for me to be more active and vocal in what matters to me. I'm not writing this blog out of any entertainment value. I'm not writing here to shine myself up into an idealized person, candidate or not. I'm writing because I have a number of stories already from my experience talking to neighbors that I want to share. Plus campaigning is a very emotional, gut-wrenching experience. I think it's important to what's happening in my life and what's happening in my campaign to get the stories from the people I meet out for discussion.

One of the main reasons I wanted to run for city council is because I felt like the public dialogue in our neighborhood has been beaten down and stifled for a variety of reasons. A number of people I may or may not agree with on issues have expressed time and again how they feel that they've been cut out of the decision making processes within city government and within this neighborhood. And that's something I know I can change as an Alder. Regardless of where I stand on an issue, they should be able have a thoughtful conversation with me, the person who makes the policy.

I've decided not to start a brand new blog for a number of reasons, but from this point forward, I am using this outpost to talk about ideas and the stories and people that I meet along the way. I'm done with concert reviews.

So to start:
Let me just say, campaigning for public office is hell, but I wouldn't have it any other way. If I'm going to serve other people and make decisions that affect their lives, then I think it's worth their time and effort to get to know me as much as they can.

I've been wanting to run for public office since I was a little kid. I won't bore you with the details, but let's just say there were some indicative elementary school projects that came home once upon a time.

I wanted to make sure I was ready for the challenges something like public office would bring, but I also realized that I needed to do this when I was young and had the time and energy to properly devote to it. I think it's incredibly valuable to be 25 and knocking on some 200 doors in a day and asking people about their lives and what they need and need changed. And they want someone that will listen. I believe that because I am young and not a dogmatic individual or set in my ways, I have the potential to be a great representative for others. I'm running for office because I want to serve my city and my neighbors. I want to spend my time in 6 hour council meetings to make sure that whatever is done, it's done right, and done in a just and respectful manner. I've never been out to score cheap political points, or to stroke my ego.

I've been joking with friends that this campaign is shaping up to be a five-ring circus. Dusty is already coming up with battle slogans ("Rumble in the Deuce" seems to be what he's sticking with).

I have to admit how surprised I was, after two years of thinking over the logisitics to this race, to see so many other people decide to run for the seat. Well, I'm just going to work the absolute hardest I can. Given Brenda's devotion to local politics, I wouldn't have challenged an eight-year incumbent unless I thought I could offer something additional and more beneficial to the neighborhood as alder than what she already brings to the table. To run for any other reason is just foolish. You should run to win, and run because it's in your heart AND head. Not run to run. I am waiting for the debates to engage my other challengers fully to see how they measure up to myself and Ms. Konkel's abilities.

Yesterday I talked with a lady who believes that Madison is turning into a homeless paradise, that we offer too many social services, and that we're headed the way of Detroit (where she's lived) in regards to crime and urban decay. I spoke with her for 20 minutes. Two houses down I was invited in to speak with a lady who has a brain tumor, is disabled, and believes that the city (and state) does not do enough for differently-abled individuals and that the process to receiving assistance is mired in bureaucracy and paperwork that she's not capable of handling by herself, since she has no immediate support network. Across the street from her lived a guy slightly older than me who works as a dentist and whose girlfriend works as a psychologist, both for local social service agencies. He talked about how they recently moved here from Chicago, that they love the way Madison feels, and that when it comes to its social services, Madison is incredibly well-run in comparison to his experience in Chicago. All of these people live within 150 feet of each other. It's this sort of conflicted experience that I love when working on policy. I have to attempt to reconcile everyone's feelings, and I thrive off of those competing interests.

Well, it's late, and as you can imagine, I've been putting in a lot of long hours. Tomorrow I'm off to talk with more neighbors, and I'm excited to come back on here and share with you what I've talked to folks about. I usually carry my little digital camera with me. I really should start posting up photos of the street scenes I'm seeing.
-b

V is for Voting

2008-11-04T08:45:00.008-06:00

So I walked out of Memorial Union last night, having missed the 82 and saw a sort of multimedia gorilla campaign projected onto the side of Memorial Library. At that point I decided to walk home and see what I saw....

I call my little project "Vote"
Enjoy.
(I'll try to update throughout the day. Apologies for the quality, I'm shooting on my Powershot instead of my SLR to keep a low profile.)

Also, check out my Flickr stream (perhaps a bit easier to page through).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12520065@N05/sets/72157608646047834/

The Greatest Show on Earth

2008-10-02T06:19:00.006-05:00

What:
Yard Dogs Road Show
w/ The Scarring Party
Where:
The Majestic
When:
TONIGHT, 8pm show
How much?
$20 at the door (totally worth it!)

So I saw a poster for this show tonight, and it looks fucking amazing. Sword-swallowers?! WOW.

There's definitely been a rise in the popularity of vaudeville-esque, burlesque-inspired performers. It's pretty obvious Katie Perry's been riding the wave successfully....

For some reason, I've always been incredibly intrigued by these types of burlesque shows, and Madison has a solid tradition of their own with the Cherry Pop Tarts (wait... i think that's not quite right) and Foxy Veronica's Peach Pies, not to mention the infamous, defunct Slipper Club Cabaret. (Hooray for men in Pink Bunny Suits! .. and way to show those Nazis up..)

It's definitely a show worth checking out tonight. Don't let the ticket price fool you. What could you possibly find cooler on a Thursday night?

FMF Friday: Screamin' Cyn Cyn & The Pons

2008-09-20T18:20:00.006-05:00

Majestic Theater, 10pm.

FMF Friday: Skintones

2008-09-20T17:59:00.001-05:00

The Frequency, 9:30pm.

FMF Friday: High Places

2008-09-20T17:55:00.003-05:00

Majestic Theatre, 9pm.

The Roots of things to come

2008-09-07T11:08:00.002-05:00

(forgive me, I'm not feeling very poetic this morning)
Went to the Roots last night with an old friend. Got snazzy shots. I wasn't a fan of the "VIP" area. You'd think you'd make the VIP area large enough for everyone you gave tickets to.

But while waiting in a needless line I overheard a security guy chatting with someone he knew standing in front of me. He was recruiting for Freakfest. I asked him point blank if the Franks were running it again this year. He said yes.

Can't wait to see them book Lifehouse again. ehhh... so sad... notice how there's been absolutely NO word about it.

Plus, are they staging stuff on Friday this year, on the actual halloween? Saturday will not be the spectacle that Friday is.

We'll see what Maynard pulls out. I'm more excited to see what the outside venues put together.

Oh, and the Forward Music Fest is going to fucking rock this town later this month.

The Smiley Face of the gods

2008-06-23T15:19:00.002-05:00

I'm getting everything in order for credentials and shooting for Summerfest starting on Saturday. This is not a festival for the point and click crowd that so often crashes Warped Tour and the like. I feel like I'll be the one looking amaturish, only carrying around some $2,000 in camera equipment. In many ways and for good reason, Summerfest is the big leagues. And I'm getting ready. Physically, mentally, on paper, heh... all kidding aside, large festivals are sweaty and stressful and filled with unexpected moments. In my mind though, it's all worth it, but its worth even more to be prepared and have all your credentials and paperwork in order (and for Summerfest, its a substantial amount of pre-festival leg work that's involved.)

What's "fun" about the whole process is trying to track down the various management and press reps to get the credentials in order. While I'm shooting a number of bands per their request (a special shoutout to Jessi representing Less Than Jake for dropping me a line), there's a number of others also performing that are worth taking the time to get the credentials. The lighting will be top notch, there's an excellent stage and stage crew. There'll be an energized crowd, and the bands (at least the one's I'm targeting) will bring it, full energy kicking their performance.

The pictures will rock, and I'm excited.

Also, a side effect to tracking down the music industry's ghosts led me to this band. Color Revolt is playing the Annex on July 22nd with Javelins. I really like their sound. If you've got 5 minutes, check them out.

I've also been getting some cds in the mail, due to some music industry press contacts I've kept up on, and some new folks that have stumbled upon me.

I got the new Motley Crue album, and I've been listening to it. I'm hoping a review will be forthcomming. In addition to a few others.

One final new music note: My good sailing buddy Casey Collin's Madison band 8889 has released their new album. Years ago, I reviewed their last album for the Daily Cardinal, and Casey has never let me live it down. He brings it up regularly and admits that it was a "fair review," but I don't think he's forgiven that it wasn't an outright glowing review.

Needless to say, what I've heard of the new album last Saturday warrants me to say that I think any review I write of it will be a strong (maybe even glowing) one. Congrats Casey & Crew.

Echos of "Pasta" and Roney(s)

2008-03-27T14:38:00.006-05:00

Not sure how I feel about this. JP was in Borders in January buying belated holiday gifts on his way outta town and out to LA.
perez hilton finds Madison

I'm curious what BS boys feel after their experience at the Majestic show and the lack of a crowd..

I've got a fever for Fever Marlene

2008-03-16T01:50:00.004-05:00

So every time this year, I always get a bit depressed because I'm never able to make it down to SXSW for whatever reason (money, timing, etc). On a whim and a friend's suggestion we ended up at Cafe Montmartre to check out Fever Marlene, a band I knew I had seen (somewhere) before and had thought highly of (I thought I had seen them at momo before, maybe a year ago. I was at their recent Majestic show to shoot the Box Social and didn't actually catch them).

It was worth the $8 cover (I didn't pay) to see them. Their drummer sat down across from me during their set break. I told him that they did more with two people than most bands do with 4 or 5. I also told him his jokes were better than the guitarist's. That they cut through his pretention (his joke was about the guy's puffy hair). I warned him that I thought something would be lost in the translation to larger rooms. He said they do a different sort of a set altogether for big rooms.

These guys deserve bigger rooms, and after playing the Madison-Milwaukee-Chicago circuit for a good 2 years or more, they're seemingly getting there.

But a warning to that lovely drummer I spoke with: your act's (a bit) pretentious. and you leave your dancers hanging on the dance floor when you change up your beats like you do so often with such little reason. But you've got the goods, sir. You're talented and making compelling music worth listening to... But you're good midwesterners, hailing from Chicago and inhabiting Milwaukee. I wanted to smack you guys every time you RE-mentioned that you had recorded your new album in your room at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. Enough already! We get it! Let us discover the open bathroom window emanating with the sounds of the city on your bathroom track. It's neat that you told the room, but by then it was far too late in the game to turn it into a successful album sales pitch.

So Fever Marlene, you left me burning hot, but sadly, a bit dizzy. Reign in the attitude, stick to your genuine nature and you'll do well for yourselves.

The crowd was definitely a mix of devoted followers and casual listeners, but I believe you won the room. Hell, and Beth Wick appeared out of wherever she's been post-graduation (Chicago?) to come cheer you on... the cool kids know about you. Now you have to give them a compelling reason to rave about you. You're almost there, but don't lose sight of the prize and take your eye off the ball... which I think you might be, Mssrs. "Chelsea Hotel".

Game on! You can bring it. Tighten the act and make me want to rave about you.

A Busy, Busy B

2008-01-30T05:27:00.000-06:00

It is a bit unfortunate that things have been getting rather hectic lately. It's left really no time for posting. I heard the Editors/Hot Hot Heat show was sold out for last night (good!) I really wanted and was planning on going, but then mid last week it was decided that I'd be sent to conference, so I'm off to Chicago with very little notice and lots of logistical planning to undertake.

Speaking of logistics and planning....If you've stumbled here from my facebook page after facebook stalking me, then, yes, this is the same individual working as the field director for Wyndham Manning's County Board race. Congrats. you've found me. Huzzah! heh..

As I've posted before (I believe) this is my fun, not-for-profit ;) music/scenester blog. There's to be no discussion of politics here. I must recommend (DC alumn that I may be...) The Critical Badger is an excellent outlet for your thoughts on that slice of life.

In way of music, all that's been going on is that I shot a few shows, specifically The Box Social at the Majestic and Cafe Montmartre. I've included a few here. If you aren't familiar with my photo-rights spiele, then please, for all means, go check out my Flaming Lips pics from the fall and brush up on it there.

Feeding the Soul

2008-01-11T12:07:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been a rather quiet period of time round these parts as of late. Not too much event hopping has been had, between the holidays and the political season my events side has slid down on par to the scene as of late, small, (sort of) quiet gatherings of good friends and good cheer.

My cousin's blog, Laura-Claire's JSOnline Kenya article and Yana's front page NY Times pic of John Edwards have all enticed me to pick up the pen (or, well, keyboard) and come back to life.

I've posted a comment from months ago that i started and never finished regarding the Madison Pop Festival and Andrew W.K. (A little late, but better than never, see Nov. 19th).

So while there's really nothing to be said of live music right now (other than the fact that I'm very excited for the Editors/Hot Hot Heat show at the Majestic coming up on the 29th)- actually, there are some things to be said, especially in regard to the King Club revamp (I have never met Dino Maniaci, to my knowledge, unless I was like 6 years old or something). But I'd rather talk today of food, and for me how good food feeds the soul, and the camera lens.

So my latest gig has been working as the Onion's photo intern. My main beat is providing the local AV Club city restaurant write-ups with photos, which means I've been eating a good amount from a good amount of restaurants.

In what I'd like to develop into a regular feature -Since I come from a foodie family, and my grandmother's voice is never far away when I pick up a fork -I'd like to introduce my new food blog, complete with pictures: The Forked Tongue.

Thanks to Alex Balistreri for the name ("Chez Cheesecake" was a little to, well, cheesy). Dubious double meaning notwithstanding, I still think it's clever.

So please, enjoy! I plan on posting up on the locations I visit as part of my Onion assignments, and anything else I feel compelled to write about.

A recap weeks in the works. Part 1: Pop Fest

2007-11-19T12:20:00.000-06:00

So it's been a quiet posting season lately. Apparently I can't always find the words at 3am post-show and well, the daylight of noon is as strong in its own right. So I'm all backed-up and have many shows to write on.

Where to start... well it seems that I left off with Andrew W.K.'s appearance at Wyndham & Co.'s Madison Pop Fest.

First off, I's like to say that I *heart* Mr. Manning. It took a little while to win me over. I was very put off by the on-the-ground operations of several shows while he was leading WUD's Music last year, most noticibly the chaos that was the Johanna Newsome show. However, the shows he booked under his tenear were a vast and significant improvement over Sarah Cantor's pitiful rein. (Ms. Newsome, Girl Talk, among many others).

Wyndham is excellent people, and his crew pulled off a very successful, thought out, and well received weekend with their Pop Fest. I especially liked that they turned over the programming to local Blogging identities. I thought it especially reinforced the community/Madison music angle, and in a good way striped the event from purely being seen as WUD-run (though, nearly all the kids really are WUD related and UW students to boot).

So, Andrew W.K.'s talk: His thesis du noir was something along the lines of "The essence of "party"; Insight on how to productively live in constant celebratory fashion." The questions ranged from thoughtful to sarcastic, idol worship to just plain silly "Can you talk to my mom?" "Can I get on your shoulders like at that one show" (Ms. Ryan)"Can I high-five you" "Can we start a party right here, right now? All of us!"

I thought that one of the most unique dynamics of the night was that Andrew's parents were in the audience. As wikipedia puts so succinctly "His father is Professor James Krier, a well-known legal scholar at the University of Michigan Law School and co-author of the widely used Dukeminier & Krier Property casebook." One law student got up to the mike and took the time to first address his appreciation to Mr. Krier and the casebook he's using this semester. Mr. and Mrs. Krier were sitting just behind me in the audience. I periodically looked back at them to see their reactions to the inane silliness that was transpiring before their eyes at the hands of their son.

Mrs. Krier looked like a rather fun and slightly protective mother, enjoying herself nonetheless. Mr. Krier sat stone-faced for most of the talk. His face never really moving. Cracking a smile was out of the question. But his eyes were alive and I got the sense that even though the night was an occasion for some very over-worked, stir-crazy students and folks at large to just release their pent up frustrations in light-hearted ways "How do you party with a special lady friend?" I don't think the fact was lost on Mr. Krier that his son was nonetheless gaining the rapt attention of 350 very bright youths at one of the nation's leading universities.

The stoic law professor-father had what looked like a gleam of pride in his eye as his son discussed the more existentialist truths about living life to productive ends .

Oh, and the crowd ate it up. I was happy that there was very little overly demanding, know-it-all fans. Maybe only one girl had an encyclopedic knowledge of the artist and his art, and she called him out on it when she wasn't satisfied with the first answer he gave her. Some folks I talked with post-lecture had been hoping for more music, but I didn't blame AWK for not doing more. The piano in the Great Hall was god-awful and out of tune, with AWK saying himself "This key is sticky, like someone spilled soda inside the piano." He was obviously struggling to play, though one of the highlights was the audience request to collectively write a song right there on the spot. It worked to mixed results, but really was highly entertaining.

After more than 2 hours at the mic, AWK ended the evening and went to sign posters and autographs for everyone. I went to talk with several friends who decided to stick it out in a like of easily 150 people that were going nowhere fast. In 20 minutes they hadn't moved more than 5 feet. At that point I was off to go meet up with a friend. Where I can't quite remember. Cafe Montmartre I believe.

Also noteworthy about this event was that I saw some representation of just about everyone that I've known connected to music ever since High School. Melby was in town. I think he gets the award for person I've known the longest. Coming in a close second to T from B who I managed to sit down next to without realizing it. I was a bit annoyed with the bits of ego-stroking from the crowd. Various members of various camps introducing themselves or others as ambassadors from some fraction of Madison's scene, or asking questions that declared as much.

I was happy to hear that Y Mae got the station director position at WSUM. She'll be very good at the role, and was probably most deserving, but then, I've been out of that loop for the past 6 months or so and I have no idea what the election process was like and who was involved.

So yes, AWK was a phenomenal success. I was pleased at the high-brow effort that kicked off this music festival. Instead of some band, there was actually a smart, borderline-scholarly debate that kicked off the festivities and i think really channeled very positive energy and a concrete, philosophical focus for the festival as a whole; party happily with a purpose and focus to better yourself. Vapid, substance-filled partiers need not apply.

"THIS EARTH IS RUINED"

2007-11-08T19:57:00.000-06:00

Can I just say that I LOVE 30 Rock. And Al Gore and what he's done for/to the American people. And Tina Fey, because she's genius.

And with that I'm off to see Andrew W.K. It'll be interesting to see what he's like, if he's any different from when Amos and I interviewed him post-PITP.

Art is...

2007-10-30T01:08:00.001-05:00

Something I came across on my hard drive that I thought I'd share.

"The importance of the soul to the body is obvious. The soul fuels the body and gives it substance both spiritual and intellectual. ... This not only justifies art as a viable profession but also helps define the dual nature of the working artist. The artist must both inhabit the individual and yet speak to the masses. The artist must also give voice to those in need, however, an artist rarely has a personal relationship with said individuals. The duality of the artist is what places artwork above normal physical labor done for the benefit of a society. Artwork has the ability to transcend the physical and speak directly to the soul of an individual."
-Nick Stein

Summary of feelings about Halloween

2007-10-29T13:16:00.000-05:00

Congratulations on Halloween this year! I was very happy to see that it went off without any incidents and that folks celebrated more responsibly. I thought it was noteworthy that so many downtown establishments organized successful events to coincide with Freakfest and really make the festivities a community wide event and not just focused on State Street. I can easily foresee this becoming the future of Halloween in Madison.

Locksley, celebrity buzz and the memories of Halloween's past

2007-10-28T22:50:00.000-05:00

I have several guilty pleasures, one of them being perezhilton.com and imagine to my surprize when i saw this

Apparently word is getting out about our boys. It reminded me of Halloween 2004(?!) when i remembered seeing them play at Pizzeria Uno's with my friends in Secondhand. The Secondhand folks were the Beatles and Locksley were dressed as the Rolling Stones (I believe doing covers), and all I remember about this gig other than that is was low-lit and poorly attended was that Jake couldn't stop ranting about Locksley and how amazing they were.

It's only taken three years and a move away from here, but apparently some other folks think so too.

Congrats guys!

DANCE DANCE!!

2007-10-28T00:27:00.000-05:00

i take a break from a lovely party at a lovely location that I won't disclose to relay my thoughts so far on the evening.

My beautiful and illustrious cab driver was kind enough to drive me as close to the 300-600 block of state street as he was able. I must say, contrary to my memory of last year and previous years, and the blogging of a certain mr. christopher guess, this year looks thinner in comparison slightly to last year, and most definitely to years past. The area around Riley's wines of the world was flooded with people, as was the lake street parking ramp area. Driving along University Ave. my prediction is that the usual suspects of bars (brothers, Johnney O's, etc) will become the most problematic come bar time because they are outside of the $7 gated area.

as I posted earlier, the Franks will see a rather profitable bottom line even if the crowds are down to a mere(!) 30,000. While i don't forsee being able to ride my bike down to Qudoba's before bar time like last year, i do believe that this bartime will be hoppin but not troublesome.

also,
the Majestic's HalloQueen was quite a crowded, successful event. They had signs posted saying that they had pulled their VIP section due to the number of people that showed up, and the place was packed gay and straight people alike.

Earlier in the evening Cafe Montmartre had a wonderful act out of Chicago that was rockin the club, however to my dismay there were not tons of folks in costume and the band, however talented, was yelling for Blatz beer while on stage :(

I am neglecting my host at this rather large, undisclosed party with a guestlist of 285-ish at the moment (*with I'm told more than that) so I shall leave you and say

"party on, wayne"
"party on, garth"
goodnight, and good luck (getting a cab -my cabbie said 3:15-3:30 is an excellent time to call)

dancing in the street

2007-10-27T21:50:00.000-05:00

I'm about to head out and I've noticed that my front yard/intersection of Blair and E Johnson has turned into Grand Central Station for all of what I call The Idiot Drivers in town tonight -aka, the out of town folks who don't understand what it means that you're on an isthmus and the thoroughfares are shut down. (hello!)

Good luck to the dude in uniform with the glow sticks and the whistle standing directly in the middle of the road trying to direct the circuitous and increasingly frustrated, lost drivers on one way streets trying to figure out how to get to "the action"

and on that note, i'm off to the action. Sorry to say though (not!), Lifehouse won't be seeing any of my money.

Cheers!

live from madison, it's (now) saturday night

2007-10-27T01:34:00.000-05:00

i cant believe i'm on here right now, but we're taking a wine break from the street.

Tonight has been very chill and awesome. the context fashion show rocked.
i missed the public drunkards set at the king club.

state street is happening tonight, the sidewalks are filled and starting to spill out onto the street. especially on the 400 and 500 blocks. the cops are doing a swell job keeping folks on the sidewalks.

oh, and chris guess is underestimating the crowd on state street right now on the daily page. it's busy and it's not riotous, which doesnt mean that it's neccesarily "quiet" its definetly hopping as 1:45 is minutes away.

well, i believe we're off to ians. we've got a yoko ono, a Gordon Freeman, a pregnant Marge Gunderson of Fargo,a Brian Eno, a man in black and a doctor and Marie Antoinette that are looking for pizza.

cheers!
and Happy Halloween!!

The pulse on the street & my crystal ball

2007-10-25T17:25:00.000-05:00

In a sentence: Friday is SO the new Saturday when it comes to Halloween in Madison. The usual suspects (dane101, the daily page, etc) have done a lovely job summing up all the events going on around town, so I won't bother.

Saturday is the house party/wander around night, sure, but it looks like Friday is shaping up to be the night to go out and be seen around town, and my sources are saying that a good amount of costume parading will be taking place on Friday.

We'll see where I end up post-work shift. There's about 4 different places I want to get to.

I almost wish I was working Saturday instead of Friday.
My guestimate on the crowd numbers for this year: if last year stood at apx. 35,000, then my bet will be on the crowd roughly at the same numbers, if not slightly less. I'd give it +/- 10% (thats 38,500 to 31,500) with an inclination to argue that numbers will be down rather than up.

WKOW reported today that "So far, Frank Productions says it's sold 7500 tickets." WISC reported last year on October 25 (the Wednesday before Freakfest) that: "The city printed 80,000 tickets, but as of Wednesday morning, only 7,200 had been sold.That estimate includes the complementary tickets given to residents and business owners along State Street."

So it looks as if given last year's sales this year is on target for much of the same. I will add however that I believe numbers will be down compared to last year given a couple of things.

Number 1) people know what to expect this year. Last year there was a novelty factor of not knowing exactly what to expect (and the hope for mass chaos in the face of the city-based attempts at organization) that I believe drove a good number of people down to State Street to check out the scene going on. Now that they know what to expect (pretty horses available for petting, some food vendors, some music they may or may not care about, bars available to them any other weekend of the year) my bet is that folks will opt for the friday night free costume parade over the saturday night festival.

Number 2) there were more local acts last year that I believe used their fan bases to draw folks out for the music (to a limited extent -Locksley and RobDz should draw). Sure there's been promotion of the acts involved this year, and there sure as hell is a budget for music, unlike last year, but I believe that if you have a sizable amount of Madison's musicians and entertainment base tied up in other gigs spread out over the Friday, Saturday and Wednesday of Halloween, there go their friends, fans, and the city's population looking for live entertainment. .. or should i say good entertainment. That Lifehouse booking gig is unforgivable in my eyes....

Number 3) The melee of sports decending on Madison on Saturday lends to Friday being "The Big Night". With football, hockey and volleyball all on the list of places to be, my bet is that most students will break out the Batman on Friday night, and the Grateful Red on Saturday [i know, i know, that's basketball...]. Post game(s)-time will be some much needed recovery/naps/dinner before costumes are donned for more celebrations -but at house parties, not State Street since much of the sports-going crowd will already be nursing exaustion/hangovers and will want to be where its warm and the alcohol is free/cheap.

Number 4) The Weather: While it looks like the pleasant rain/sleet mix of previous years won't be making an appearance in 2007, Friday is pegged to be the warmer of the two nights. Weather.com is putting Friday's high at 58 degrees and an overnight low of 48, while Saturday's night time temperature is predicted at 32 degrees.

Number 5) Out of towners: Careful consultation with usual parties out of Milwaukee, Chicago and the Twin Cities shows that most to all are planning on staying put and not making the trek to Madison (something I'm sort of happy about. granted, I'll miss seeing my friends -remember the year of the 12 Duffs!- at the same time I'm happy not to deal with inane out of towners trying to navigate the town with little to no respect)

Number 6) Bar time. This year there's no freebee drinking hour at the bars come 2am when the clocks change to 1am. This will cut into the prevailing motivation of previous years to hit the bars on Saturday night, especially the bars within the pay zone of state street.

Number 7) Buzz: last year there was a virtual blizzard of press attention and coverage, from all corners of the city's press and ensuing coverage of students', residents', business owners' and officials' reactions to the new plan. This year has been rather mute and tame by comparison (remember the State Journal's daily ticket counter on Page 1? The daily student press stories and editorials?) in drumming up attention about the event. Number 7 here feeds directly into point Number 1.

So In Summary:

My surprise sits mostly with the Franks. If your profit-sharing agreement is a X/Y split between the city, and a sliding scale of X+5/Y-5 [i'm reserving the proprietary nature of these figures] in increments of a couple thousand tickets past 40,000 sold, why is the lineup what it is? Obviously there's a lot of private booking issues surrounding this event I'm not privy to, but it seems as if your bottom line is best the more successful you make the event. Given numbers 1,3,6 and 7, and directly feeding into numbers 2 and 5, again, why is the lineup what it is? The Gomers, the costume contest and the battle of the bands were concepts from last year that didn't have the manpower, resources and time to get off the ground in the 3 week period leading up to the event. So what was the conceptual basis for the lineup that the Franks chose? They're businessmen. I'd love to know how they think Lifehouse + a semi-obscure singer/songwriter tour + Bob Marley's lesser known son =40,000+ people. They do get points for Locksley and RobDz and the Gomers should be there in the first place.

They lose points for not getting the Onion to be involved/endorse the acts appearing on the stage bearing its name (You better believe that the AV Club knows their shit).

But I suppose in the end its not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game. They've been on board since spring. Plenty of time to cull their resources and connections to more fruitful results. I do lament that Adamany [sp] was as unprepared as he was, compared to the Franks, and well, him and Tag have split in the mean time, so maybe it's fine Last Coast/Tru Endeavors wasn't the promoter involved, but gentlemen, you have to understand, in many ways this event was the touchstone of my college experience- the unique intersection of my rockstar and political worlds. I wish all my efforts (as underfunded as they were) would have amounted to a more inspired vision in the event's second year. But I don't really know the back story to how this event has shaped up under the Franks' control.

The powers that be used to talk about October 28th (or whatever date Sunday was) as the first day towards planning Halloween for next year. I'd love to be a part of that Sunday punting session, even though I know full well the conflicted nature of parties' interests in this event for future years. As I've said before, in many interests' books there's good reasons to kill off this event, which I feel is a complete disservice to this community.

My view, however correct or incorrect that it may be, is that the Franks are playing into that sentiment, either willingly, or as dupes, and that just irks me.

Economists and campaign finance experts usually talk about water and bathtubs and plumbing when it comes to regulations on free flowing activity. I feel that you'll find that when it comes to the crowds at (or not at) Freakfest 2007 that they'll have flowed elsewhere come Saturday night.

But then, if the crowds are still at 30,000, (if that somehow is the default crowd number) well 30,000 x $5 x X%= X0,000 which is still a nice chunk of change. And, the Franks are businessmen after all. So maybe Halloween won't be a total loss. To them. And I'm sure everyone in this town will manage to find themselves a good time, whether it's at Freakfest or not.

I know I'll be having a awesome time Saturday night. Because it's Halloween in Madison after all.

Somewhere down in Fragglerock

2007-10-04T19:13:00.000-05:00

(I apologize, that's a total inside reference, actually two combined references.. bonus points if you get it.)

It's 7pm, do you know where your local rockers are?
Apparently they're across the street from me on the 600 block of E Johnson. In fact, they've been there since I've moved in mid-August.

And I must admit, I'm very very impressed by the noise that's been wafting across the road from me. Anyone know who they are? I suppose I could go over and introduce myself to them. But I thought I'd ask first.

Also, I've been intrigued by the space that opened up next to the old White Horse Inn. I know the Hutchinson's from way back. I'm curious what the space and rent is like.

Do you think this town could use another small-ish venue? What I do know is that as much as I enjoy my neighbor's playing, I feel like they should have a venue to play at. But is another venue even necessary in this town?
Je ne sais pas.

NXMW?

2007-09-25T15:53:00.000-05:00

I was very happy to read that "Ky-Mani Marley, son of Bob Marley and table tennis champion Anita Belnavis, has been added to the Freakfest line-up."

I'm also pleased by the prospect of War playing.

Now all they need are Mates of State. or Juliette Lewis. But please, no more Christian-based , singer/songwriter lame-o acts.

I served a guy last night originally from Austin who is/was a very good friend of the SXSW founder. I argue in future years, Halloween in Madison without too much trouble could take on a SXSW format/feel. We have a major film festival, why not a major music festival?

It looks like the club scene on Halloween saturday is going to be packed with amazing options.

Madison's Halloween is [fill in the blank]

2007-09-22T22:37:00.000-05:00

I invite you to finish that sentence.

A lot has been being announced and said about bands and entertainment choices for Freakfest this year. And I most definitely have many thoughts on the matter... seeing as how I ended up booking 75% of the bands [less than 2 weeks before the event, with a $0 budget, ps. thanks Lee Gordon for your 11th hour help!] but that comment I made earlier about holding my cards close to my chest is most definitely in play here. However, I do feel that it is worthy and important and pertinent to discuss the overall philosophy and issues of responsibility surrounding this event.

As anyone who spends a moderate amount of time keeping up on local commentary in this city knows, there's many things people rant about in Madison. To many, Halloween is a prime bitch-fest opportunity; against the cops, the university, the city, elected officials, the out of towners, the underagers, the overagers... you get the idea.

But I've sat in the hot seat, been in the meetings with everyone and anyone involved in the decision making with this thing, and first off, by default because no one else steps forward to organize this thing, and given what has transpired in previous years, the decision-makers have at this point earned the ability to act as they see fit.

So if we have anything to be upset about it's that halloween has developed because of our actions. However, the beauty of this whole thing is that we then are the ones that have the power to shift the debate, to lobby the decision makers, to take pride in this glorious event and weekend and make it into an event we want and at the same time can be proud of that doesn't end in pepper spray, vandalism and looting.

If there's any complaints about the evolution of this concert idea I fully encourage you (yes you!) to speak up and get involved and volunteer to help organize this thing, or parts of this thing (costume contests, band selection, local advocacy & charity outlets, etc). Entertainment choices with this event are made under very different circumstances than any ordinary concert event... and perhaps at times within a vacuum. That's why the key to the future of Halloween in Madison will lie in the hands of you and me and all of our friends to let our ideas be known of what we want this event to be. ... which is what is motivating me beyond my better judgement to comment at all on this whole thing.

We can sit and bitch and harken back memories of the "glory years" when 70,000 raving, drunk maniacs in costumes (or lack thereof) took over the city for a night and created absolute mayhem. Wow. Aren't we proud of ourselves. Yes, yes, those damn kids from Minnesota and Chicago and Iowa created a lot of the hell, but don't for a minute say we weren't partly to blame as well. We let them into our dorms [pre-2005], our apartments, our cars, we let them sleep on our floors, we threw the parties that brought them to town.

All I'll say is that while I don't necessarily agree with some of the specific choices being made surrounding this year's event, I give carte blanche to those organizing it because no one else that [imho] could be phenomenal at organizing this event is really trying to get involved, and I therefore cannot fault those calling the shots of their logic and ruling philosophies behind their decision making. Those that really could be trying to take this thing on and make it great are just seemingly pissed off at authority and are blase and running amok with "fuck you, we won't attend, it's lame" attitudes. (I can't tell you how many time's I've now heard "Madison's Halloween is ______" filled in with "lame," which for me is heartbreaking to hear.

It's very simple to make this a great event, and I believe an annual Halloween bash is worth pursuing for a variety of reasons. But it can't continue with the limited amount of constructive input it's been receiving this year and in years' past, and I speak from frustrated first hand experience. This event needs you, the scenster kids, the radio kids, the dj kids, the band kids, the frat kids, the advocacy kids, (maybe) the ASM kids and political kids (...yes, I'm squinting at you with suspicious eyes..), the newspaper kids, the blogger kids. To whatever ends, this event happens because of you. You should be the ones taking interest, taking charge of what goes on at the event, and my arguement is your number one concern should be the entertainment (nevermind the gating, never mind the tickets... you let the SoCo people scan your ID to put you on a mailing list for Christ's sake...) the end (a fucking awesome concert) will overshadow the means (a wristband or ticket for $5-7)

At any rate, here is your notice: you have 35 days until Saturday, October 27th. Make the most of it. Make this your party. Your Event. Your City's gleaming pride. While you should fight not to lose the debaucherous nature (who wants a halloween with no naughty nurses? no rhinestone encrusted push-ups?.. no track team in thongs?) , this is a most serious call to fight for your right to party. Because believe me, it will be a fight to make this a real party, the market economics are working against it.

So get on the phone. Let it be known to the Frank Brothers and specifically David Maynard who YOU want to play on the stages. Indie? Reggae? Punk? Hip-hop? Folk? Noise? Techno? House? Make it worth their while to listen to you. and yes, NOW is the time to act. Their full lineup schedule is set to roll out the first week in October giving aproximately a week to 10 days to be vocal (but I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who cares about this. ...).

I call anyone who loves live music, theatrics, costumes, revelry to turn this into an event where the city has every incentive to make this a big deal and get us to WANT to attend in a meaningful way. Why the Flaming Lips can play in front of a crowd for 10-15,000 SoCo-liquored up youths on Willow Island with no problems (with folks from other states driving in) and the same thing is not/cannot being organized for Halloween is, I think, a worthy discussion to be having.

I'll leave you with the Isthmus' quote (since they're so fond of citing me): "One major national rock group slated to perform at the Freakfest 2007 revelry on October 27 is Lifehouse, a Christian rock trio that hit Top 40 radio in 1999"

Is this what you want Halloween to be? How do we get (back) to the point where the fill in the blank answer is "Madison's Halloween is [fucking awesome]"?

That answer I'll leave to you, because only you can answer it.

and another one gone...

2007-09-20T03:13:00.000-05:00

Because I haven't seen word of this anywhere else from bloggers/press except on the band's myspace board, I just wanted to say:

My sincere regrets and condolences to the members of Call You Out on their breakup. Formerly known as BRP, previously known as Billy Ray's Pirates, and originally known as Chris Holoyda's brother's band.

May the soul searching go well and be productive to the ends you seek.

"A Great Place to Raise the Kids"

2007-09-15T04:46:00.001-05:00

Tonight has been a very solitary night. It's nearly 5am, I'm just rolling in, and I've seen and done nothing (well, not nothing, I hung out with my brother who's in town... and it cost me $12 in cab fare from the east isthmus to regent street)

I was contemplating the city as i rode through the streets, silent and still in the precious hours between a friday night's parties and a saturday morning football game. If you want a heartbreakingly beautiful picture to store in your mind of the city, ride up W Wash at 4:25 in the morning, and just look at the Capitol.

So I must admit, I'm in love with David Duchoveny in Showtime's phenomenal new series Californication. I have to find a reason to visit my brother's friends in order to monopolize their on-demand in order to watch it. There's five episodes out. I'm totally fucking hooked... and it made me realize in many ways how sad I am about life in this town right now. Leaving aside any nitty gritty personal details, I've come to the conclusion that this town holds me captive and yet breaks my heart because, while Madison is a far cry from the botox celebreality that is the LA of David Duchoveny's character Hank Moody, you really can't fuck anyone in this town without there being an interrelated back story to everyone tied somehow to everyone you know (and quite possibly hate). Moody ends up sleeping with his ex's fiance's 16 year old daughter... and while no liason I know of is quite that fucked up, I'm so sick that there's no new blood in this town, for either myself or my friends.

I was trying to summarize why exactly that was, when I opened my much neglected email to find the following message from a dear and long time friend of mine who wrote the following: "I wanted you all to know that tomorrow, September 12,[note it's early on the 15th that I got this] I will be embarking on a trip to Quito, Ecuador. Actually, I am moving there, to be a teacher of English as a foreign language in a local university. It is very exciting and scary and also just confusing. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison this summer and it is time to start the next stage of my life.

I love Wisconsin, and I will return, it is my home and that of five generations of [friend's last name]. However, it is past time that I leave, my personal growth requires it... I need to learn how to take care of myself on my own, outside the very safe and warm (metaphorically, not literally) land between the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan. I think this is the start of something very good. Hopefully, by the time of my return I will be a much more well-rounded person and will have written something people will want to read."

Why? Why can't my friend have learned in 4+ years of college here how to take care of himself? Why is Wisconsin (and especially Madison) such a great incubator for childhood and adolescence... full of the quintessential 2.5 kids and soccer moms and cute little dogs running around white picket fences that enclose Craftsmen style houses (or the Veridian 21st century versions)... but then fail so miserably at sustaining and developing high-minded, articulate adults who seek personal, professional, artistic stimulation?

Why are we the whore? Used for our charms and wiles when they're wanted but thrown away when our youth has passed and our souls crave greater personal and artistic desires. Don't tell me we're not beautiful. That we don't have beautiful people, or beautiful cities and towns and villages. Don't tell me we don't have smart people and a university that many can only dream of attending. There is prestige and honor and beauty within our fair city. There is sex and love, art and music. Designer clothes and furnishings. We are well read. And literate on the finer points of life. We can tell Camembert from Gorgonzola, a Syrah from a Pinot. Angela Adams from a Target knock off.

So it seems we merely play the muse to souls who are only passing through, who might return, but only after they've searched high and low, near and far for some ideal or dream or love or career that supposedly can't possibly be found here.

But they'll be back. Those same people, these very good friends of mine. They'll buy a house in Fitchburg seven years down the line, they'll have found their art, their love, their dream job, lost their youth and ideals, while (mostly) holding onto their morals. They'll have tired of big places and strangers and the butterflies that accompany new experience and change occasions. They'll come here to drink their Syrah and champion organic farming. They'll send their five year old to the Montessori school. Their seven year old to art class. Their nine year old to guitar lessons. They'll take an administrative position with the university. or the state. or American Family. The more adventurous will find themselves on Tuesday nights at Gomeroke shedding their title of Anchor Bank investment broker, if only for an evening. They'll drink beer on the Union Terrace and listen to the Cork 'n Bottle String band while their children run by the lakeside and they reminisce about the "glory days" of college. They'll forget why they ran away from this place...

But that place is a long ways off. Right now my friends are stifled in their creative, artistic, academic, career and personal goals. Individuals who are young and sexy and trying to figure
themselves out run as fast and as far as they can from everything here that's so familiar and known.

The alpha crop of young things are packing up and leaving this safe little nest that has been home as fast as you can say "health insurance," or "Grand Central Station" and that, my dear readers, breaks my heart because I want to be part of something really great and creative and career-driven and cutting edge here, not in Chicago (friend #1), or New York (friend #2) or Atlanta (friend #3) or Portland (cute coworker #1), I don't want to travel to fucking Ecuador (the above friend) or Kenya (friend #5) or France (my hip, awesome cousin) to feel like I'm finding out who I am, or becoming a more well rounded individual, or making a difference in the world in this "next stage" of my life. [Question: what is this whole "next stage" anyway? I guess I'm about to find out...]

But alas, Madison is not the center of the Universe. There is such a thing as life outside of this bubble of a town, and right now everyone I know is going "there," going into "the real world" to "find themselves" (wasn't that what college was for?).

But I ask, why is it expected of me to gaze upon anything else than the sailboats out on choppy September waves on Lake Mendota when a coppery sun is slicing through gray autumnal clouds in order to be happy or to "find myself"? Why must I venture elsewhere? What then does Madison lack that is driving away so many that will one day find themselves back here?

the money shot(s)

2007-09-10T12:50:00.000-05:00

Ever the perfectionist (and with impossibly huge photojournalism shoes to fill in this town because u.j. is soooo good) these are a few of the shots of the Flaming Lips from Saturday night. This first pic is the money shot of the evening. The rest are lovely as well.

* A quick disclamer (because the internet is a wonderful and horrible thing): I, Bridget Maniaci, reserve all rights and copyrights to these photographs. They may not be published, copied, reproduced, posted online elsewhere, or otherwise distributed without my written permission. If you'd like others to see my photos, please send them a link to this website (http://riotinthecity.blogspot.com). Violation of these terms will result in actions up to and including litigation. If you'd like a copy of a photo, please email me at brmaniaci@gmail.com, and I'm sure we'll be able to work something out.

On to the photos!

karma is a glorious and funny thing...

2007-09-09T00:31:00.000-05:00

At one point very soon I'll come back on here and post my whole thoughts on the Flaming Lips show and how the hell I ended up there. When my 11th hour attempts at getting press credentials failed, fate stepped in...Needless to say, a total and random run in with a stranger proceeded to land me smack dab on stage with the Flaming Lips as one of the dancing aliens, and I got some amazing shots of the show. Here's one photo. There are definitely times when being a female photographer works to my advantage. I hope the multitude of gentlemen photographers on the ground got nice shots as well. If it took dancing in a shiny purple alien costume to get stage access.. so be it...

My complete and heartfelt thanks to the whole Flaming Lips crew. I was very impressed with your attitudes and concert operation. Thanks for making my night.

oh hell, here's a second photo as well. I've yet to really upload all the pics. This is just a quickie upload.

Saturday is Madison's Movie Night

2007-09-02T02:47:00.000-05:00

"Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded" -Yogi Berra

A while back (November 26, 2006, to be precise) I read an article on the NY Times talking about how native New Yorkers are now spending Saturdays "in" due to a combination of social circuits, lifestyles, and what they dub a mass invasion of tri-state "bridge-and-tunnel people."

(-read it here if you've got NYTimes Select service, if you don't and want to read it, email or message me)

Tonight as I called through my list of close friends to see what folks were up to, I couldn't help but draw allusions. After a long week, I was pretty much wiped out from going to the bars, but I was willing to give the night a shot if my friends were.

**To give you an idea of what I mean of being tired with bars, Monday found me at Cafe Montmartre (1/2 priced wine, amusing & naive company), Tuesday on the MU Terrace and at The Plaza (wtf to those 2 guys wanting a barfight on a Tuesday!? At The Plaza!!) .. I passed on the Caribou, Wednesday at the Old Fashioned (karaoke), Thursday at Madison's (last Piano Fondue performance there, so no Plaza) and Nachspiel, Friday at Crave (nice fire drill!) and The Plaza (again..) and tonight the opportunity for a farewell party at Essen Haus, which I never made it to. .. i went to another bar and read. at the bar. yes, you read that right...keep reading... Nor this week did I get to two of my ultimate favorites, Paul's Club and The Vintage. They were last week. And at some point (I know last week... though I can't remember exactly when) I got drinks with a friend at Brocach, caught SMD and the Kissers playing, walked with that friend to meet an unrelated friend at the 'Dice (aka The Paradise). ..and this is a slippery slope of memory games that is already too long..so i'm done. **

Tonight is supposed to be one of the biggest bar nights of the year, right? Today was the first Badger game, and it should be an especially huge night now that everyone's back in town with classes starting up around the corner, or about to leave to attend pressing matters or looming classes elsewhere.

As many people's first and last night(s) in town, accompanying mass-partying is to be expected... And as expected on a night like this, I saw the police paddy-wagon rolling past Brothers and Wandos and Johnny O's overflowing with lines of kids waiting to get in.

Driving past the South East dorms later on I saw packs of (assumedly) new freshmen walking in many directions on their way to hit parties and (assumedly) not bars.

At 3AM I've been hearing breaking glass, shouting voices, occasional songs as the revelers of the night stumble past my apartment window.

So there's tons of fucking people out tonight. (Obviously.)

And yet... and yet.... my friends (and admittedly myself) were not to be found. ... Joe was doing a movie-night thing, Dan was doing laundry, Eric and Jill and Nick were in for the night. (different) Eric and Mike were not around. And I found myself visiting a bartender friend at a west-campus bar that had already seen a glorious share of customers earlier in the day & evening from the football game and was now dead. As I said, I ended up reading a book at the bar.

This is by far not the first Saturday night in Madison I've had like this. It makes me curious about why that is and the detailed bar scene here.

While it's a far cry from what large metropolis cities like New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, LA, etc. experience (especially per the NYT article), there does seem to be a bit of an Isthmus vs. outsider mentality about attending bars in the city on weekend nights.

It is a rather nuanced phenomenon, but for example, a classic rule of thumb many friends of mine have is "Everyone goes to The Plaza on Thursdays, no one goes there on the weekends."

Seemingly why this is stems largely from a combination of drink specials, class schedules, the come-as-you-are dress code (including backpacks in tow), weekly newspaper production habits and an urge to kick back and actually get away from classwork that's been bogging you down for the past 4+ days, among other reasons.*

*Another, older NYT article ("How Thursday Became the New Friday," November 6, 2005, read it here with NYT select access) discussed the structure of the college week (especially a lack of Friday classes) in relation to socializing habits.

For example, to many I know, the weekend version of The Plaza is not usually worth the same attention as the Thursday night experience, much like the aforementioned NYC scenesters stay outta specific clubs on the weekends due to the shift in atmosphere, clientele, and dress code (Cmon Frieda's!! drop the rules!).

The Ivory Room is another classic example of this. Saturday is not the night a hip young thing ventures in there... a sea of the JCPenny/suburbanite crowd will most assuredly meet you. The worst I've seen was a couple with his and hers mock turtle neck sweaters. ..And on those nights they will want to hear the worst song(s) you could possibly request in a Piano Bar (Barbara Streisand you're on notice -and for the love of GOD, don't request Billy Joel's "Piano Man" in a piano bar)... i digress...

What I can't figure out is: if on many Saturday nights, when the rest of the town is obviously hopping, (and detox is filling up...) so many people I know stay home (maybe throwing small movie nights or venturing to Point Cinemas, at most. -Four Star anyone?) then what groups are actually in the bars? The East/Westside Madison townies? The suburbanites? The Langdon Street set? The Underages? (Note to MPD & WKOW27: nice Bullfeathers raid/news spectacle Friday night) UW students? All of the above? Some of the above? None?

I just don't know. But I do have a sneaking suspicion that if a lot of very social, downtown-dwelling patrons are not actually in the bars on the bars' busiest night of the week, there must be some effect on the drinking culture of the city on the nights they're not present. To what extent I can't say.

For instance, a bullshit and easy argument not worth following that up with is "there's not problems at the bars when we go out [on weeknights]." Obviously the downtown bar-time atmosphere is everyone's concern, and those who tend to stay in some Saturdays don't do so every week (SOTLF and Flaming Lips on the 8th...), As it is, a good number of these kids will still find themselves out at problematic establishments on weekend nights for birthday celebrations and the like [Wando's, Johnny O's, Brothers, Brats, KK].

So I don't know. Do we all get as drunk equally in this town? Probably not. Do we act in equal manners with equal goals. Of course not. Is there a territorial nature to the bar scene? I would argue so. Is it a negative to the overall scene? No idea.

All i know is that on certain nights Yogi Berra got it right with Madison; "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded."

Lovefest, part 1

2007-08-26T14:19:00.000-05:00

In an effort to show that I'm not a vinegar filled music war-monger of sorts, I figure after every negative post, I should post up a positive post. I'm thinking I'll do a "best of _______ " series.

So my first series is:
The top 5 most entertaining (active) bands in Madison
1) The Kissers
2) The Gomers
3) Screamin' Cyn Cyn & the Pons
4) The German Art Students
5) Awesome Car Funmaker

Honorable Mentions: The Box Social, The Crest
Non-active Honorable Mentions: Phat Phunktion, Natty Nation

your thoughts? what are your top 5?

The Best of the Midwest

2007-06-25T17:20:00.000-05:00

So here is my latest work. The Public Drunkards, aka Alan's sketch comedy troupe. They'll be (playing?) having a show this Thursday night at The Club Tavern out in Middleton with Awesome Car Funmaker, show starts at 9pm. Look for this badass photo in the Onion this week.

On another completely different note: I ventured into Steve & Barry's today and dove into Sarah Jessica Parker's Bitten line of clothes...or what was left of it. Overall I was relatively impressed. I ended up with two shirts. The jersey dress and jeans I tried on were almost right, but i think that in the process of trying to fit as many body types as possible they missed a few tailoring details that would have really made these items sing.

S&B was decked out in tons of sjp-laden photo ads with catchy phrases, like her infamous tshirt shot sprawled with "fashion is not a luxury" or "a sweater should not cost more than your groceries" but I was most struck with the phrase "Shoes should speak volumes but with a price that whispers." I can't stress how far such a philosophy will go in the Midwest, especially in this stylish but savy college town (if only S&B was publicly traded, I'd buy NOW). All I could think of were my fire engine red 6" patent leather shoes that cost me $30 from Target. Target (Proenza Schouler), H&M, The Pink Poodle ($25 Michael Kors nearly-new wedges), Charlotte Russe, Plato's Closet, it's not about quantity (or at times even quality) but about style, and Madison's got tons of places to find beautiful, stylish, fashion-forward clothes and shoes.

If only the girl in line at Borders today recognized style... the one buying fantasy novels and Harry Potter trading cards/action figures (!)... that black purse with a gold Sassy medallion really really needed to go.

return from silence

2007-06-20T18:12:00.000-05:00

my apologies friends for not posting in.... two months. my laptop took a nasty trojan hit thanks to the W Wash Kinko's jump drive as I was helping my mom with some school data, and it just now got fixed. right now its been a calm period after the storm that was graduation and all the attached events. lots of interesting stories and events, music, scenester & political in nature. right now i'm trying to track down a certain artist's personal cell number so i can approach them about playing PITP. anyone with awesome (direct) rockstar contacts, please shoot me an email, or better yet if you're able, gimme a call if you know an artist that would be open and willing to play PITP saturday, september 8th.

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists make me want to drink $14 worth of drinks

2007-04-15T22:58:00.000-05:00

(As posted on the Facebook message board for their upcoming show this weekend... I only had 1,000 characters...)

I saw them play Stanford on March 4th and I was totally not impressed in either their stage presence or their musical stylings.. I was so dissappointed because I had heard good things, but the show was just a total let down. by the end of their set the audience was just really bored (with good reason) and was hardly dancing/moving about. so sorry to be the critic here (especially to the good chunk of my highly esteemed DC & WSUM friends I see that plan on attending).. to make up for it, i posted some of the Stanford pics for all you diehards. and who knows, maybe the opening bands will make it worth your while. To me, Mr. Leo and company just seemed to be tired and trying too hard to reach an audience they didn't fully understand through music that has already been thoroughly vetted by better groups before them. Harsh words I know, but $14 is a lot of drinks to be sacrificing for this group imho.

(but regardless that everyone I know is going to this show... including Annie E. who's not related to ANY of the arts crowd kids.... there's no way I'm paying double digits to see a band I didn't like the first time when I saw them for free... plus they're absolutely awful photo-subjects. i facebook posted pics from the Stanford show because the performers had worthless expressions while they played. awful photos, just awful photos... and those receeding hairlines! cmon! don't pretend it's not there. everyone sees that it is...)

Falling Up is Hard to Do; Did Fall Out Boy kill punk rock?

2007-04-10T22:00:00.000-05:00

(originally written on Saturday, April 7, 2007. Hilton Hotel. Myrtle Beach, SC)

So on this lovely little road trip I’m on there’s been a battle brewing every half hour or so: what cd to put in next. Paul has a lot of circa 2000 emo/punk. Discount, two different albums by The Travoltas, every Further Seems Forever album ever, including the 3 disk special edition album, an old Jimmy Eat World (not their newest, because that would be too simple. Paul thinks it sucks. I think it’s their best.) I on the other hand am packing The Gun Shys, Green Day’s American Idiot, Franz Ferdinand, Miles Davis, Dameon Rice, and last, and most important (for what I’m writing here) Fall Out Boy’s From Under the Cork Tree.

Every time I listen to music from the “good old days” (circa 1998-2002) I realize how simplistic, repetitive, and uninteresting the punk/emo/rock music really was. How very sheep-esque we all were for actually liking this. And I think I realize where it all changed, and that was with Fall Out Boy’s breakthrough (ignoring for the moment the effects of the Strokes, the Killers, etc, and The OC) . As I’ve been doing data entry for my term paper I’ve had FUTCT spinning on repeat. God damn this is complex, interesting, non-formulaic, creative music. I have deep respect for Patrick Stump’s lyrical abilities.

When I met and interviewed them in June of 2005 they had just released their album, had started to get some major MTV play, had Jay-Z and the Def Records folks come knocking, and Patrick looked a lost deer in very, very bright headlights as he tried to direct me to where their tour manager was at. (Pete Wentz has just always been a dick head, so we’ll just ignore him). Patrick had this very innocent quality about him that struck me as profound. Listening to this old album, you can hear that. And it makes the album great. There’s a great intimacy to his tone, the way he drops his voice a couple octaves to whisper into the microphone. It makes you feel secure and like you’re part of something really, really great.

My old co-worker at the comp lab Mary Kate was actually from FOB’s hometown and had been part of the original scene that had been into them, including post-show trips to Denny’s with the band. One day while I was working at the lab and was working on editing some of my pics of FOB, she told me about what happened when they hit it “big.” She was in high school and working at Best Buy when FUTCT was released. She said this FLOOD of people just kept coming in all day looking for the album. She said how weird it was because these were kids she knew and had hung out with, had eaten with, and how all of a sudden, it wasn’t just her music and her local band anymore. All of these other people wanted in as well. The word on them was out for all of America to snatch up. MTV had come calling.

So now, three years later I look back at this band. All of their Grammys and MTV Video Awards, all the flashy Michael Jackson-esque music videos, all of their magazine covers, and I wonder if the innocence I found so alluring in Patrick Stump is still glimmering from his eyes. I wonder if they could make an album like this again if they tried. My guess and personal experience tells me they can’t. Because the innocence and anoynimity is long gone.

A side effect of FOB’s success is that now many, many bands are trying to do what they did. Thinking that if perhaps they have the right microphones or producer they can achieve the same sort of album. But that’s the problem. It will be nothing but an imitation and only a parade of copy-cats will come forth without any meaningful results. Friends of mine paid the FOB recording team of Manny Sanchez and co. $13,000 to record an album that sounded as good as FOB’s efforts in the same recording studio. This band is now on the verge of playing their last show after not receiving the industry attention they were hoping for.

At the end of the day (and this post) I’m left listening to Dance Dance, and true to the song’s spirit, that’s exactly what I want to do. It is a masterful song that I don’t think anyone can touch. FOB included. Perhaps FOB’s legacy will be that they killed suburban punk rock and the whole Warped Tour market because they succeeded in raising the creative bar so high. No longer are bar chords and some reverb enough to keep the local kids entranced. That’s why the 16 year olds now (think they) are hipsters. Well, and the OC deserves a lot of the blame also. …

I just hope that when Patrick Stump falls asleep at night it’s with that same glittering light I saw within him three years ago. But there’s a lot riding on him. Say, perhaps, the entire punk-legacy scene of the nation’s 14-22 year olds. Not to mention the fortunes of Jay-Z. I do wonder how well he actually sleeps at night. Because money can’t buy you inner peace at 2 am. Unless it comes in illicit forms, and then that’s not really peace. That’s just … awful.

Goodnight Patrick & sweet dreams.

red patent leather clogs and turquoise hoodies; fashion and political hipsters rule the day

2007-04-10T12:50:00.000-05:00

Today i was on-time for class. Probably for the first time in over a month. While being on time required me to drive my car and pay for ramp parking, I nonetheless got to enjoy a leisurely walk up observatory drive to Bascom Hill. I noticed that everyone else also seemed to be back on schedule. The sidewalk going both ways was packed with streams of kids.

After a week of many foreign things, it was interesting to look at all of the kids walking to class, and their fashions. I saw a girl with bright cherry red patent-leather (birkinstock?) clogs, followed in rapid succession by a girl with a turquoise hoodie.. conspicuosly identical-looking to the one from H&M I was wearing.

I walked into class with my tea from the bagel place (not the new NY one on E Mifflin, sadly I was not impressed with their bagels after the mouthwatering early review from dane101 that piqued my interest)

i sat down, took off my (infamous) leopard-print coat, and looked behind me to see a girl wearing an almost identical blue & gray thick-striped shirt. Her's was a sweater and v-necked. Mine was a jersey dress and a plunging cowl neck. I turned to the front of the class, rather bemused, after spending a week not seeing anyone dressed like me, only to see ANOTHER girl with a similarly striped shirt. Her's was red & gray. Our guest speaker for class, Mr. Jim VandeHei, executive editor of Politico.com, and former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reporter, musta been amused as he looked out at this class of media and political-savy hipsters, seeing three girls all wearing roughly the same shirt. All trying to be unique, only to all end up looking the same.... or maybe he was contemplating much more weighty matters, like whether Alberto Gonzales is to resign.

At any rate, politico.com seems awesome and politically fascinating, and, god damn, it might just catch on with "the milleniums" (as a classmate of mine collectively referred to our generation). -Watch out for an MTV college tour before the primary season.-

Minus the negative connotations that MTV has with anyone really within a division I university, the prospect of engaging my generation of passive, snarky, and critical peers seems like just the job for Politico to do. After hearing Vandettei talk about the founding of the organization, the purpose for it, the self-effacing attitudes of the staff, it occurred to me that here are the Hipsters of political journalism taking on the established media and their aged dinosaur strategies. Why shouldn't the hipster political journalists engage the hipster intellectuals of the nation's brightest universities. We'll actually listen to someone like 35-year old VandeHei in his North Face jacket over Brian Williams and his suit any day.

Class was probably was of the most insightful of the semester (guest speakers do that I guess). VandeHei announced that I got the award for most questions asked. I think the grand total ended up at 4. But there's nothing more than I hate than an empty room with a silent professor/speaker when they're actively seeking out students. I seem to have gotten very good at coming up with targeted, intelligent questions on the fly, because VandeHei went on at length for the questions I asked.

After class, I asked him my traditional question, of whether, as a journalist he ever got frustrated at only being able to sit on his hands and be a fly on the wall, because for me, that was always the very very frustrating part of being a journalist. I always wanted a seat at the table. Taking photos of the table never was enough.

He said that no, that was never a conflict he had, and that the perks of being a journalist (flying with Bush to India and then to Pakistan in a darkened Air Force One) outweighed any sort disadvantage by not being actively and directly involved in the policy process.

I for one, really enjoy having a seat at the table itself. I'd probably be a very good political journalist, and perhaps someday (when I retire) I will. But for now, I really believe I need to be more actively and directly involved, though it's currently been a weird amalgamation of policy wonk, socialite, and photographer all rolled into one.

Apparently though, that's exactly what's to be needed in the new world of mass media and political messaging, so said VandeHei. Someone who's smart, articulate, has expertise, and can handle themselves on television (and someone who can look good on TV doesn't hurt either).

I'm ready for my close-up Mr. Russert.....

A long way from Paul's Club

2007-04-07T17:22:00.000-05:00

I have been camping out in the single starbucks here in myrtle beach for the past two days, questioning my existance and my role in the world around me. MB is a decayed, dirty, car-clogged resort town that just keeps tearing building down for new high-rise resorts and putting on fresh coats of paint instead of dealing with the fact that this town is a fucking mess in every direction. a hot mess friends of mine would say. i have no idea what to do with myself tonight. nothing's walkable. the bars are laughable at best. the people are lacking any substance whatsoever. the "bike route" was a joke. there is NO live music or clubs (except if you like classic 80s hair metal crap or the worst kind of country music).

i've been thinking a lot about madison, seeing as how i am quickly approaching the end of my college days. i am trying to decide what to do with myself as an adult in a town i've lived in since i was 9 years old. where everything is an old hat and has a familiar, worn feel. But then i travel, and i see places like myrtle beach, whose city's website boasts: " the only city-owned public library in the state" (wtf other kind of library system is there?!) and i realize how increadibly good i've got it in madison. solid urban planning. fresh, locally-grown food. an increadibly discerning and educated population. a vast social/music/arts/foodie scene.
i dont understand how so many places have gotten it so VERY wrong and why we're so special. why madison is the exception instead of the norm.

i almost wrote an email to the mayor here. all day i've been compiling a list of things in my head to deride and chide the leadership of this town over.

right now i just want paul's club. i want a smoke-free bar with smart undergrads, who are dressed smart, and like the 23 year old new-mother i danced with to TV on the radio last friday night amid the bar chairs and the lit tree, i want people my own age who have better things to talk about than that chick across the room who's hot. i want $3.50 rail mixers (I paid $5.75 for an amaretto sour last night that was maybe 1/2 the normal size) and craft beer.

last night i partied with a frat from atlanta (Emory U.) and their assorted female companions who are here for their frat's formal at our hotel. they're staying on the entire floor below us. i struck up a lovely little conversation with the boys staying below me while on our respective balconies. one was from MB and i asked him what bar i could go to without drunk guys with popped collars hitting on me. he just snorted and said such a place didnt exist. this is the hell i'm in.
this is why i miss madison.
this is why i want to stay in madison.
but this is why i'm scared of wanting to staying in madison. that i'm not challenging myself to experience the world. but so far, the world's a pretty awful place.

i want to shout from the rooftops how wonderful we are. how vibrant and eclectic (and hipster) we are. next friday (or saturday) is the (last) arts mark party with the DC kids. its gonna be a riot. and i'm going to cherish every moment of it. when i get back on tuesday i'm going to take the time to walk state street and soak it all up, go into expresso royale and look at my photos, there on the wall, documenting the immense talent and creativity adn value madison has to offer.

this is a challenge to the general world outside of Madison. I challenge you to show me a better place than the city i call home. because so far out of the 27 other states i've been to, i've yet to find a rival.