From 1923, a silent cartoon in honor of filmmaking – Americans have loved films since their origin, and were quick to use animated films to celebrate other films, even from the earliest days of the newly-developing medium.
Beautiful Whitewater, Film
Help Bring a Film to Life! Your Chance to Support Filmmaker Sean Williamson’s Heavy Hands
by JOHN ADAMS •
Update 5.6.12, 4:43 PM CDT – Today was a good day, thanks to the support of over one-hundred fifty backers, each playing an important role.
Update 5.6.12 – There’s time left until just after 4 PM CDT, to make this fund-raising drive a success, with more yet to go. If you’ve not had a chance, there’s still the occasion to join others, and help fund a film (something good in, and of, itself – and also great fun – you can honestly say you financed a film, after all).
Original post —
There are few aspects of American culture that are, in fact, more American than film-making. Here’s your chance to help make a film — really — by supporting a local filmmaker.
Whitewater filmmaker Sean Williamson is almost finished his film — Heavy Hands. He’s using kickstarter.com to raise the last of the money needed to finish the film.
Sean has a goal of $15,000, and is at about $13,000 as of this post. A kickstarter like this allows a filmmaker to set the dollar amount that’s needed to finish a film, and then people can pledge — in amounts of their choice — to help fund the film. If the filmmaker does not meet his goal, he or she receives none of the money — the pledges are only collected if the contributions reach the target goal.
His kickstart ends Sunday afternoon just after 4 PM CDT.
I am confident we can put Sean over his goal.
I’ve contributed, and I hope you do, too.
TRAILER
SEAN SPEAKS ABOUT THE FILM
In my debut feature I’m following in the footsteps my favorite directors (Sam Raimi, David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch) by creating a challenging and stylish narrative.
Heavy Hands follows Anti-hero Jimmy Lee as he deals with the repercussions of a thoughtless and selfish act. Set in a harsh country landscape, Heavy Hands is a scary, funny and sexy picture filmed in Wisconsin, New York, Kansas and Colombia on super 8mm stock.
WHY KICKSTARTER?
I’ve been working on this film for going on three years and have used every interesting and unique actor, location or resource I could. Now it’s time to really bring it home. Closing funds I raise through Kickstarter will help me finish editing, sound and any additional shooting that needs to be done. I’ll also be looking to enlist the services of one bigger name professional actor/actress.
I know this film can be great. I need these finishing funds to bring the vision of this film full circle.
SEAN’S GOALS FOR HEAVY HANDS
I want as many people to see and enjoy the film as possible. That’s really the bottom line. In the end I want to use the success of this film as the start of something bigger – not just for people in Milwaukee but for all the talented people I grew up with in Walworth County and all the people I’ve met in my travels. So let’s do this. Let’s make it happen.
SEAN’S MOST RECENT WORK
Animals, Crime, Poll
Update: Trainer videotaped hitting horse to be cited for animal abuse
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s an update on the story that prompted last week’s poll, Animal Abuse or Necessary Technique?, about a trainer recorded hitting a horse with a plastic bat.
Seventy-seven percent of respondents thought that kind of treatment was abusive, about fifteen percent weren’t sure, and nearly eight percent said it wasn’t.
Dane county officials will cite the trainer (if they can find her) for animal abuse. Their reasoning:
“We’ll issue the citation if we can find her,” said Doug Voegeli, Dane County’s director of environmental health.
Voegeli said Plasch met the two criteria — unnecessary pain and excessive pain — required in order to be cited for animal abuse. He said the decision was made after he reviewed the video and consulted with animal service officers from his department.
“We felt there were other methods that could be used” to load the horse, Voegeli said.
Cats
Friday Catblogging: She was only being playful…
by JOHN ADAMS •
Film, Poll
Friday Poll: Most-Awaited Summer Films
by JOHN ADAMS •
Summer is a season of blockbusters films, and Hollywood’s seen things that way at least since Jaws, a generation ago.
This summer, some big-screen adventures await: The Avengers (today, 5.4), Men in Black III (5.25), The Amazing Spider-Man (7.3), and The Dark Knight Rises (7.20).
Of these big-budget films, which looks good to you (multiple answers are possible)? Poll and trailers below —
Daily Bread
Daily Bread 5.4.12
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Whitewater’s weeks ends as a mostly cloudy day, with a high of sixty-four.
Google’s daily puzzle asks about textile-making: “What style of cloth weaving is named for the world’s oldest continuously-inhabited city?”
The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this day in 1873,
1873 – Progressive Governor John James Blaine [Was] Born
On this date John James Blaine was born in the town of Wingville in Grant County. A politician, governor, and U.S. Senator, Blaine attended public schools in Montfort, and received a law degree from Northern Indiana University. He was admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1897 and practiced briefly in Montfort before settling in Boscobel. A Progressive Republican, he served as Boscobel’s mayor for four terms and was elected to the State Senate in 1909. It was there that he gained prominence by leading investigations into the campaign expenditures of Wisconsin Senator Isaac Stephenson, attempting to block Stephenson’s re-election.
A zealous advocate of progressivism and the ideals embraced by Robert M. La Follette Sr., Blaine was one of the organizers and vice-president of the Wilson National Progressive Republican League. After running unsuccessfully for governor in 1914, Blaine was elected state attorney in 1918.
In 1921, he became governor and held this office for three consecutive terms. During his tenure Blaine promoted progressive labor legislation, fostered a campaign to eradicate bovine tuberculosis, and signed the nation’s first law giving equal rights to women.
In 1926, he won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate where he served from 1927 to 1933, becoming one of the leaders in the effort to repeal prohibition. He died on April 16, 1934. [Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, SHSW 1960, pg. 39]
Laws/Regulations, Liberty
Reason’s April 2012 ‘Nanny of the Month’
by JOHN ADAMS •
The accompanying narrative from Reason:
We’ve got Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal demanding clean urine in exchange for welfare benefits (a bad idea that also doesn’t work as advertised, but hey, at least the boozers are safe!), North Carolina regulators busting a blogger for praising the paleo diet (an offense that can get you tossed in the clink!), but this month the freakiest controllers come to us from a Brazilian city where public schools have begun tracking thousands of 4-to-14-year-olds with GPS-embedded uniforms. (At least they’re not tagging the kiddos’ ears!)
Funny about ear-tagging: someone is sure to insist that if you can embed an identification chip in a pet, then you can/should/simply must embed a tracking device inside each human child. Expected arrival stateside of proposals like that: six to twenty-four months, tops.
Originally published on 5.3.12 at Daily Adams.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 5.3.12
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
It’s a cloudy day with a high of seventy-nine, and likely thunderstorms, ahead for Whitewater.
The History Channel recalls that it’s Machiavelli‘s birthday (born in 1469) today.
Often misunderstood, always compelling.
In our history, from the records of the Wisconsin Historical Society, a birthday of a famous Wisconsin resident:
1898 – Golda Meir Born
On this date, Golda Meir (nee Mabovitch) was born in Kiev, Russia. Economic hardship forced her family to emigrate to the United States in 1906, where they settled in Milwaukee. She graduated from the Milwaukee Normal School (now University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and joined the Poalei Zion, the Milwaukee Labor Zionist Party, in 1915. In 1921, she emigrated to Palestine with her husband, Morris Myerson, where they worked for the establishment of the State of Israel. Meir served as Israel’s Minister of Labor and National Insurance from 1949 through 1956 and as the Foreign Minister until January of 1966. When Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol died suddenly in 1969, Meir assumed the post, becoming the world’s third female Prime Minister. She died in Jerusalem on December 8, 1978. [Source: Picturing Golda Meier]
Google’s daily puzzle takes us to Italy long before Machiavelli: “What document changed the familial status of the Roman emperors associated with Quinctilis and Sextilis?” more >>
Elections, Politics, Recall
Video for the Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
I posted earlier about the Democrats’ recall forum on 4.25.12 at UW-Whitewater. I’m not a Democrat, but it was an event well-worth attending. All four Democratic candidates for governor, and other office-seekers, were there.
For my posts on the evening, see The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater and The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater (Compas and Jorgensen edition).
If you didn’t have an chance to be there, you can still see the presentations. Democrats can get another look at their candidates, and Republicans can see the field that’s striving to take on Gov. Walker. It’s always better to see something in the original than rely solely on newspaper or television accounts. (You’ll also be able to check my assessment of the night against your own opinion.)
Beautiful Whitewater, City, Nature
Go Native!
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater has many well-manicured lawns, and on a few of them, some honey bee hives. The lawns are lovely, and the honey bees (despite depleted aggregate numbers from colony collapse disorder) are good pollinators.
But what if there’s something different, perhaps even better, than conventional lawns and common honey bees? There is something different — and perhaps even better — if one would only go native.
In place of a regular lawn, however carefully kept, one could grow a natural lawn. Whitewater’s municipal code includes provisions allowing natural lawns at less than 50% of one’s property not covered by buildings, or more than that subject to review and aproval. (There are also provisions for what sort of plants one may have within a garden of whatever size.)
Best bets: Review the ordinance fully, take note of the prohibited plants list, and keep the garden under 50% of your unoccupied property, thereby avoiding review from Whitewater’s Director of Public Works (who should have better things to do with his time in any event).
I’ll establish a natural lawn someday – I think it would be lovely, and I’ve marked it as a longterm goal.
But there are other native possibilities one can pursue, including raising highly-efficient native bees in place of honey bees. I’ve thought about this now and again, and a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (of all places) about native bees rekindled my interest. See, Urban Buzz: A New Bee That Sips Sweat.
Acompanying the story is a short video about urban bees —
Although the story’s about a new species of sweat bee, Lasioglossum gotham, it also considers the general benefits of native bee species —
We’ve neglected the native bees because the honey bee was so successful,” said entomologist Anne Averill at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst who is conducting a $3.3 million federal study of native bees in 10 states. They hope to expand the role of native bees in agriculture.
Not a single native plant in North or South America actually needs a honeybee to survive, so long as native bees thrive, museum and university entomologists said. Untended and largely unnoticed, native bees play a role in pollinating cash crops such as tomatoes, cranberries, alfalfa and squash. They are more prevalent among farmers’ fields than previously believed, often more effective than honeybees as pollinators and more resistant to the problems that have decimated honeybees in the U.S. and Europe, several studies show
For more about orchard mason bees – a good choice — see Denise Shreeve’s account of those bees, a native species. Shreeve writes that
Orchard mason bees are native to the entire North American continent and are amazingly efficient pollinators, especially of early fruit and nut trees. (It takes only 250 OMB’s to pollinate one acre of commercial apple orchards. It would take 25,000 honey bees to accomplish the same task.)
After completing a honey beekeeping course a few years ago, and realizing how many chemicals it takes to keep them alive [she’s referring to supplements, medications, etc.], I decided to research native bees as an alternative. It’s been a fascinating project and I know that our native bees (there are over 20,000 different species in North America alone) can certainly take up the slack as our honey bee populations decline. Since they are cavity nesters like blue birds, and cannot drill their own nesting holes, I decided to help grow their populations by designing bee houses for them, similar to blue bird trails that are so popular now.
So, why not consider orchard mason bees?
Push a bit farther from the conventional, into a world of natural lawns and native bee species, and the city would look even better (and pollination would be more robust) than now.
Well worth undertaking.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 5.2.12
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Whitewater’s rainy Wednesday will give way to occasional afternoon thunderstorms and a high near eighty.
Today at 4:30 PM, Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets.
On this day in 1957, recalls the Wisconsin Historical Society,
Joseph McCarthy died of liver failure at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland. Born in 1908 in Outagamie County, McCarthy studied law at Marquette University. After graduation, he set up practice in Waupaca until WWII broke out; he spent most of the war at a desk as an intelligence officer in the Pacific Theater. Following the war, McCarthy used false and exaggerated statements about his military record to create a public image of “Tail-Gunner Joe” and launch his career in politics.
On February 9, 1950, Sen. McCarthy gave his first public speech against communism. and for the next three years he and his staff investigated government departments and questioned a large number of prominent people about their political pasts. Being accused of possible communist beliefs by his highly publicized committee ruined the careers of hundreds of individuals in government, industry, and the arts. On December 2, 1954, after he had terrorized American public figures for several years, the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to censure McCarthy for “conduct contrary to Senatorial tradition.”
He died less then 3 years later, spurned by his party and ignored by the media. More than 100 pictures from all phases of McCarthy’s career are online at our Wisconsin Historical Images site, and relevant documents are provided at Turning Points in Wisconsin History.[Source: Oddball Wisconsin, Jerome Pohlen, 2001, pg. 33]
Are dogs really people’s best friends? Yes, and one Golden Retriever in China seems especially so:
Some physics, some music, from Google’s daily puzzle today: “The theory that explains a train whistle’s changing pitch as the train passes by was first tested using a group of musicians. What instruments did they play?”
City
Whitewater’s present, future
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve had a good bit of email asking about possible changes in Whitewater’s municipal administration, and whether I think her city manager will take a job elsewhere.
On Friday, I wrote an initial reply to the news of City Manager Brunner’s candidacy for a post in Fond du Lac: Qui-Gon Jinn’s Sound Advice for Whitewater.
Obscure and overly-dry, but my way of teasing about a 128-point, screaming red headline published elsewhere announcing the candidacy as though it were a schocking development.
A shocking development, by the way, would be something like MARTIANS SPLASHDOWN IN CRAVATH LAKE or WHITEWATER COW REALLY DOES JUMP OVER THE MOON.
Qui-Gon offers solid advice: no point in looking too far ahead, “at the expense of the moment.”
How this candidacy will go I cannot say. Private-sector employees switch jobs without much fuss; publicly-paid leaders do so with predictably more notice, and less certainty.
About Whitewater, though, one can be confident: whether easy or hard, Whitewater’s destination awaits, where she will be a different city from the one in which we live today. (See, along these lines, New Whitewater’s Inevitability.)
We’re part way toward that different city, and well-past the point of return. The principal questions for us are ‘how long?’ and ‘how easy or hard?’ There will surely be bumps – and perhaps obstacles — along this road.
Yet, for it all, there will be no going back.
Elections, Politics, Recall
The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater (Compas and Jorgensen edition)
by JOHN ADAMS •
I wrote yesterday about the Democrats’ recall forum, focusing on the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor. (See, The Democrats’ Recall Forum @ UW-Whitewater. )
Below is a summary of two other candidates’ presentations: Lori Compas, running in the 13th Senate District against Sen. Maj. Leader Scott Fitzgerald, and Rep. Andy Jorgensen, now representing the 37th Assembly District, but running this fall against Rep. Evan Wynn in the 43rd District.
(A representative for Congressional candidate Rob Zerban also spoke, but I’ll confine my remarks to Compas and Jorgensen.)
Lori Compas.
I’ve written about Compas previously, including her attendance at an open-office session that Sen. Fitzgerald held.
On this evening, she began speaking before the college-hall audience by mentioning that she’d earlier had dinner with some students, and that her husband is a professor at the university.
Compas is, I think, in her early forties, but she seems younger than that (as Fitzgerald, conversely, seems older than his real age).
She read from prepared remarks, rather than extemporaneously, but spoke well and easily. Her remarks were obviously her own, and Compas read them with a familiarity that made looking at them necsssary only briefly.
In this way, she would step back from the lectern, and then occasionally move toward it, in a kind of gavotte. I’d never coach someone to do this, but it was surprisingly innocuous, and almost effective.
She’s smart, but here’s her great strength: she’s evidently and manifestly sincere. If one comes away with a single impression, it’s that she means what she says. That doesn’t make her right, but it does make her politically effective.
When Americans watch Frank Capra films, or enjoy Norman Rockwell depictions of our civic life, it’s not simply because they like that art: it’s because Americans deeply admire what lies beneath, in our sincere hopes for a good and simple politics. I well-understand that the clever and sophisticated shun films and art like this, but the loss of understanding is theirs. Americans are, as H.L.A. Hart once described us, noble dreamers.
I’m sure Fitzgerald resents her candidacy, her imposition on his time, his moment, his influence. She must seem something between impertinent and alien to him. That’s part funny, part sad, because from this conclusion one may say that Fitzgerald cannot recognize his own people, his fellow Wisconsinites and fellow Americans. They are no Other; they are his neighors.
From the video to which I’ve linked above, one can see that he’s uncomfortable in her presence.
On principle, Fitzgerald should debate Compas at least once. Tactically, he should stay as far away from her as possible, and speak of her only in a matter-of-fact and level way, lest he say something boorish.
She, on the other hand, need only get close in the polls, and then rattle him. She’ll not have to say anthing other than what she’s saying now; it’s simply that anything she says must seem provocative to Fitzgerald.
To debate the challenger would be to elevate her candidacy, and that Fitzgerald will not wish to do. Ideally, any debate should be a simple matter, two people across a small table, with perhaps a moderator seated there, too. No need to stand up, or give formal speeches — just a back-and-forth. (As in a 2010 debate between Walker and Barrett.)
And yet, and yet, why not debate Compas this way? My own disagreements with her would be different from his, surely, but is the 13th District not owed that debate, or those debates? I think so.
From a debater’s point of view, it’s not winning or losing, it’s just setting forth the best case one can, there and then. Afterward, one goes on, adjusts where needed, but recognizing that there will be other debates, other contests. It’s not as though Compas and her supporters don’t live in the district, or will be moving away – they’ll be there, one way or another, on Wednesday, June 6th.
They’re worth acknowledging and engaging, simply as residents, before and after the election.
Andy Jorgensen.
Rep. Andy Jorgensen now represents the 37th Assembly District, and lives in Fort Atkinson. Redistricting took that district apart, and he will challenge Rep. Wynn of the 43rd in the fall.
Jorgensen will be running against a freshman Republican of uncertain strength within the 43rd. Although the district has been re-configured from the 2010 race, Evan Wynn won in a very red year, and it’s unclear how rooted he’s become within the politics of the area. I’d guess not well.
Jorgensen spoke to the forum in a three-button suit, and delivered good, but rushed, remarks. He has a solid speaking voice, but spoke too quickly. (He was probably unaware of the time limit for speakers; it would have helped to be clear in advance.)
He’s likely to debate Wynn along a table, at a candidates’ forum, but that’s not to Jorgensen’s best advantage – he’d be at his best at an open-air forum between the candidates. Wynn’s a mostly phlegmatic, monotone speaker: he’s better suited to a subdued atmosphere.
Jorgensen’s points were interesting, as he hit Wynn on some issues (including signing a confidentiality agreement on redistricting) that local papers have allowed signatories to excuse away. There’s Jorgensen’s challenge: the press will be of no assistance to him. He’ll be on his own.
[Update, 5.1.12: The confidentiality agreement that Wynn foolishly signed was subsequently made public by court order. Looking at it, every so often, one is reminded how unsuited for public office a candidate may turn out to be, sunny campaign promises notwithstanding.]The 37th’s incumbent will have to speak more slowly, directly, and concisely – and raise questions of Wynn’s record and suitablity for the 43rd.
This race, based on the history of the old district, the composition of the new one, and the expected turnout in November, will be one of the most competitive in the state.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 5.1.12
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Tuesday will be a warm day for Whitewater, at 70 degrees, with a slight chance of rain.
Whitewater’s Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.
The Wisconsin Historical Society notes that John Bascom, noted educator, was born on this day in 1827:
On this date John Bascom was born in Genoa, New York. A noted educator, university president, and author, Bascom received his B.A. (1848) and M.A. (1852) from Williams College in Massachusetts. In 1855, he entered the Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts.
He was appointed president of the University of Wisconsin in 1874. A leader in college education, he devoted his career to improving university standards by encouraging improved high school instruction. Bascom also advocated co-educational instruction, a rarity in the nineteenth century. During his tenure as president, the first Agricultural Experimental Station and the School of Pharmacy were created, and new buildings such as the Washburn Observatory, Old Science Hall, the Library, and Assembly Hall were built.
Bascom was a strong supporter of women’s rights, was a leader in the Prohibition party, and advocated the right of workers to join trade unions and strike for decent wages. He resigned from his university presidency in 1887 and returned to Williams College to lecture in sociology and political science. John Bascom died on October 2, 1911. [Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography, pg. 29]
They had me, right up until the membership in the Prohibition Party (no solution for over-drinking that).
Google’s daily puzzle asks about the US Postal Service: “How much more do you pay to mail a first-class letter by U.S. Postal Service today than your great-grandfather would have on November 3, 1917?”
What if someone actually built ‘The Greatest Machine Never Built?” Charles Babbage (1791-1871) proposed a mechanical form of a computer over a century before anyone first began building one. What if someone actually built that proposed, but never constructed, machine?
Here’s a talk about Babbage’s achievement, and what it would be like if someone built the machine: