Entries from April 2006 ↓

April 29- August 13, 2006 at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Masters of American Comics is the first art museum exhibition to examine comic strips and books on this expansive scale. Each artist is represented by in-depth groupings presented as a series of individual retrospectives featuring a range of each artist’s works from conceptual sketches and finished drawings to printer’s proofs, tear sheets, printed newspapers, comic books and graphic novels. The exhibition layout highlights individual contributions of the artists and the ways in which they reinvented the medium to significantly influence their peers and subsequent generations.

The exhibition is organized chronologically, beginning in the early 20th century with American newspaper comic strips through the influential work of such pioneering comic artists as Winsor McCay (Little Nemo in Slumberland) and George Herriman (Krazy Kat), who set the stage by defining the formal attributes of the genre in the early 1900s. Focusing on the great achievements of this new art form through the century’s first decades, the exhibition also includes the groundbreaking work of Lyonel Feininger (The Kin-der-Kids and Wee Willie Winkie’s World), E.C. Segar (Thimble Theatre), Frank King (Gasoline Alley), Chester Gould (Dick Tracy), Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates), and Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts).

The exhibition continues with the early Golden Age to the rise of the independent comics movement. Comic books began as a form in which newspaper comics were reprinted and, with the rise of such series as Will Eisner’s The Spirit and Jack Kirby’s Captain America and Fantastic Four, became the dominant popular medium for narrative illustration. In addition to Kirby, particular attention is also paid to Harvey Kurtzman, whose MAD Magazine transformed the medium into one capable of great artistic expression and social commentary beginning in the early 1950s. By the mid-1960s, R. Crumb’s work in Zap Comix added a new level of personal expression and extended the significant role of independent and underground comic books and graphic novels. This medium continues to evolve today through the innovations of such artists as Art Spiegelman (Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers), Gary Panter (Jimbo), and Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth).

Failing for some people can be happenstance, others we make it a lifestyle.

Having had the experience of bombing in front of group of people when I was taking a comedy class, there was no need for a Bad Set Decoder Ring. All you had to do was observe the guy in the front row picking at the gum stuck underneath the folding table and slipping loose pieces into his mouth. Between him and the cheers from landing a spare from a seven ten split from up front, it’s a wonder my closer didn’t involve a sharp knife or just a bottle of burbon.

Surprise! Henry Rollins is mad. But really, nobody gets mad like Henry. This time the chances of President Bush getting impeached have gotten Henry’s dander up.

It’s no secret that the Palladino’s won’t be sticking with Gilmore Girls after this season after failed contract negotations. The Palladino’s distinctive voice made Gilmore Girls watchable, entertaining, if not the sheer reason alone that a show that’s only action was lips moving at a break neck pace could last for six years.  Their departure is on scale with the devastion that was left in the wake of Aaron Sorkin parting ways with The West Wing. 

From T.V. Guide.com:

 The word on the street is that you guys wanted a two-year pickup. True?
Amy: I don’t think “pickup” is the right word, because this was a personal deal; this had nothing to do with the show. Our deal ends, or ended, already. Basically, what the f—k am I doing in editing? I should be home. So, we, personally, as individual writers did not have a deal going forward. The show is picked up and the actors have a deal but we didn’t have a deal. It wasn’t so much about a pickup. We have gone year to year to year, and this year we decided that this charade is ridiculous. We want to be able to be around to protect the show for next year, the year after, for however long the show is up and running.
Dan: We were doing one-year contracts for the last two years and we felt like…
Amy: It’s very exhausting to do a one-year contract.
Dan: We felt like we wanted to be able to see more than 300 days into the future; we felt like we had earned that. And that was definitely one of our points. We wanted to play a significant role on Gilmore Girls for at least two more years, because as Amy has told you before, we feel like this show… it can weave and bob and change and mutate and keep going, because it’s about family, it’s about relationships, and it could keep going for two, three, who knows how many years.
Amy: [And] they have to launch a new network. They need product. Maybe they’ll be very lucky and they’ll have like 12 hit shows right off the bat this year, but we sort of felt like… we find ourselves in the position every year of doing this. Every year, it’s like, “Oh, it’s the last year! One more year! Come back for one more year!” And it’s like, you know, kids, don’t tell me “one more year” anymore. I’m so tired of hearing “one more year.” It’s exhausting. I firmly believe that as long as… I mean, Lauren Graham, every show she does something different. She grows more as an actress. These actors aren’t done with their journey yet. And we feel like, sure, maybe it’s the last year, but chances are, if it’s a solid lead-in, if it does good numbers, if it helps them launch something, why wouldn’t they want another year? That’s not insane.

Nathan Rabin of The Onion A.V. club interviews Simpsons creator Matt Groening on his show’s legacy and what he himself thinks is funny.

AVC: You collect bootleg Simpsons merchandise. What are some of the prized items in your collection?

MG: Well, I’ve lost a number of my plaster Tijuana Bart Sanchez figurines to earthquakes. It’s quite tragic. Artisans are working day and night to create more unauthorized stuff for me to put on my shelf. I have a lot of Simpsons Russian nesting dolls that people send me, as well as fan paintings and sculptures, weird little toys, and a crazy Russian coloring book of The Simpsons. The artist probably was shown an episode for 15 seconds and then based an entire comic book on his vague impressions.

James Cameron believes digital cinema and 3-D technology could be the salvation of dwindling box office numbers…if only the theaters would upgrade already.

Why doesn’t he just shut up and make another movie? Maybe then with all his box office dough he can start upgrading theaters himself.

There’s a fun interview over at beaver dam french club with omnipresent writer Claire Zulkey.

The good folks at Fat Possum Records have just released an EP The Black Keys Chulahoma: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough

An originator, Junior may have been one of the most important blues guitarist of the last half of the 20th century. Junior re-imagined the blues. Building on a tradition from the Mississippi Delta, he created a sound that wasn’t from the Delta, but from the isolated hills of Northeastern Mississippi. There they have only one rule: You’re allowed to do anything your big enough to do.

The Black Keys aren’t the only band influenced by his work. Iggy Pop, Bono, Sonic Youth, and the Rolling Stones made pilgrimages to Holly Springs Mississippi, to experience Junior.

Here’s a sample of their cover of Meet Me In The City, which is one of my favorite Junior Kimbrough songs.

Also available at Fat Possum, Asie Payton’s Worried which culminates two recording sessions: one at Junior Kimbrough’s club and another at Jimmy’s Auto Care, Fat Possum’s old studio.

For all of 1995 and most 1996, Fat Possum tried unsuccessfully to convince Asie that the world outside Mississippi needed to hear him. But despite living below the poverty level and desperately needing the easy money of a gig, he could not be lured away from Washington County for more than a couple of hours.

Take a listen to:

I Love You

Please Tell Me You Love Me

Check out the latest from MTS Films.

Friday, an all white jury acquitted three former Milwaukee police officers of severely beating Frank Jude Jr. Apparently, there was a lack of witnesses who weren’t in the process of beating a black man half to death or fellow police officers. Maybe it’s just another example of what happens when you hire if-you’re-guilty-and-you-know-it defense attorney Gerald Boyle.

“Finally McCann called two who appeared to be his star witnesses – the only two MPD officers who said they did see who beat Jude – Joseph Schabel and Nicole Belmore, who responded to the scene in uniform and on duty. They each gave testimony damaging to the defense, and both said they’d suffered reprisals within the department for cooperating with prosecutors.

The defense contended that two of the off-duty officers – Bartlett and Spengler – put themselves on duty to arrest Jude, who they believed had stolen Spengler’s badge. But the men did not beat Jude, jam anything in his ears, put a knife to his throat or yank back his fingers, their lawyers said.

Because an all-white jury acquitted white officers in a beating case with racial overtones, “I’ve heard some comparisons to the Rodney King case,” said Rodney Cubbie, defense attorney for officer Ryan Packard, who was at the Spengler party but not charged in Jude’s beating. “There’s a difference. In King, you had a videotape that showed the beating, and the question was whether or not it was justified. Here, you don’t have a videotape that shows who did what, and none of the defense attorneys argued that what happened to Jude was justified.”

So who did it then? Did Jude just magically kick his own ass? Rodney King had that same problem too.
Again we hear that a “code of silence” amongst the officers aided in covering up the situation. Seems cops like rap videos too, because all we ever hear lately is about “stop snitching”.
It’s hard not to wonder what will happen next and how will the city react?