It’s a partly cloudy Wednesday, with a high of sixty-one, ahead for Whitewater.
Today at 2:30 PM Whitewater’s Community Development Authority will meet, in closed session, to conduct interviews for the now-vacant CDA director’s position. Whitewater has been ill-served by the practice these past few years of relying on her city manager to play a director’s role. One has no idea what sort of candidates the search has found, but this is the second effort in recent months at finding someone.
(It says much about how far the CDA has drifted from conventional standards that the search has not been more public, with candidates properly announced and biographies offered. Nonetheless, ending the use of a city manager as a makeshift CDA director is the right decision.)
Astonishingly, the History Channel’s highlight for 5.9. is the publication of L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics:
Today’s mention gives hope to crackpot hucksters everywhere.
Google’s daily puzzle offers a clue in a given name: “The famous tourist attraction named after Sir Benjamin Hall is not the largest of its kind in its city. Where will you find the one with that distinction?” more >>
If we were to have a blizzard, covering all the city, today would yet be a lovely day.
There are, of course, some individual losses for which there is no human recompense, but for the community, no day is more restorative, and so more welcome, than an election day.
Today will be a bit sweeter, a bit brighter, a bit more hopeful, for the exercise of the right to vote.
Some believe we have too many elections; looking at our long history, it would be truer to say we’ve not had enough.
It’s a mild day ahead for Whitewater, with a high of sixty-six, and a slight chance of rain in the afternoon.
All America watches Wisconsin’s election day, and awaits the contest ahead in the next month. A day on which people vote always feels better than a day otherwise.
After Germany signed a surrender the previous day, this day in 1945 was celebrated across Europe as VE Day.
Google’s daily puzzle offers a question about Prohibition: “If a man lives in the city that lifted prohibition on March 1st of 1989, and he was born the year it banned beer, how old is he?”
Note: A connectivity glitch of some sort this morning at FW, but easy enough to bounce back. more >>
Whitewater’s Monday will see a day of scattered showers and a high of sixty-seven.
On this day in 1945, Nazi Germany “signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Rheims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World War II. ” The New York Times story on that surrender reported that “The War in Europe is Ended! Surrender Is Unconditional; V-E Will Be Proclaimed Today; Our Troops on Okinawa Gain.”
How adaptable is Wisconsin agriculture? Very. Over at the Wisconsin Happy Farm, they’ve a picture of crop-dusting by helicopter.
The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this day in 1956,
35th Million Vehicle Produced at GM Plant
On this date General Motor’s Chevrolet Division produced its 35th million vehicle, a gold ’57 Bel Air sport coupe, or “hardtop,” at the Janesville plant. For photos and stories about Wisconsin’s automotive industry, visit the page devoted to Automobile Culture at Turning Points in Wisconsin History. [Source: Janesville Gazette]
Google asks a question about distance and travel times in their daily puzzle: “How many days would it take you to walk from SJC to STL?”
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.
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.
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.
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 —
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]
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.
