arts extract

Work from Pier 1218's current exhibition.

Madison Arts Reads, May 24, 2013

The Wisconsin Book Festival’s new coordinator isn’t coughing up many details on this year’s event yet, at least according to this Isthmus piece.

There are just a couple more days left to check out an exhibit of dozens of artists at Pier 1218, a gallery tucked away in a West Side backyard. Spackle Madison has an overview and photos here.

A bunch of information on Madison’s summer outdoor entertainment options has emerged over the past week. I summed up the Terrace music lineup for Isthmus and Rob Thomas has a preview of a series of sci-fi movies on the Terrace. The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art has released the schedule for its annual Rooftop Cinema series, which we preview a bit on this week’s Arts Extract podcast.

Madison music blog Rock of the Arts has launched a new series aimed at digging up more Wisconsin bands, starting with this interview with Heavy Looks.

Finally, get outlandish with your arts reading this week and check out my friend Mark Riechers’ excellent Isthmus piece on yodeling.

E39 at the Memorial Union TerraceE39 at the Memorial Union Terrace

Episode 39: Slag on the Kick

This week the Arts Extract Podcast hosts continue to preview a range of outdoor entertainment options coming up in town. First, the hosts assess the summer music lineup on the Memorial Union Terrace, providing some context on standout shows from electronic musician Maxmillion Dunbar and hip-hop artists El-P and Killer Mike. After rounding up some further outdoor music, the hosts turn their attention to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s Rooftop Cinema series.

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Madison Arts Reads, May 17, 2013

The response to the upcoming Make Music Madison event has been equal parts enthusiasm and wariness. Isthmus‘ update on MMM’s city-wide efforts follows suit, noting that it sounds fun, but also seems incongruously stealthy. “If there was a billboard, I whisked right past it. If there was a radio ad or Facebook campaign, my social network was tuned in elsewhere,” Jessica Steinhoff writes.

Speaking of big outdoor-music events, the Madison Mallards’ Pondamonium fest won’t be coming back in 2013, despite its big debut last summer.

This week I also wrote an update on music at the Wisconsin Union Directorate. It’s a little bit about moshing and other crowd-control issues, but, I hope, more about what role WUD should or should not play when it comes to music.

The Cap Times has this preview of science-fiction author John Scalzi’s May 23 book talk at A Room Of One’s Own.

Rob Thomas reviews Free The Mind, a documentary that has one more screening this Saturday and centers on fascinating UW-Madison research into the human brain.

Episode 38: Drive-In Days of Movie Future Past

This week the Arts Extract Podcast gives you the first in a two-part preview of the Madison area’s outdoor entertainment options. During the first part of this week’s episode, co-host Mark Riechers tells the uninitiated what to expect at the Highway 18 drive-in theater near Jefferson, and the hosts also preview a series of films taking place in city parks. Listen in next week for the full rundown of shows on the Memorial Union Terrace, movies on the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s rooftop, and more. Continue reading “Episode 38: Drive-In Days of Movie Future Past” »

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Madison Arts Reads, May 10, 2013

This week marks the end of music writer Andy Downing’s tenure at The Capital Times. His last full feature, previewing noise-rock band METZ’s Saturday show at the Frequency, demonstrates why it’s important that daily newspapers (or, in this case, whatever it is dailies are becoming) hire knowledgeable arts writers. You don’t want just anyone to attempt writing about weird and abrasive music, and you want someone to be able to write about that music in a way that makes sense for a broader audience without dumbing it down. Continue reading “Madison Arts Reads, May 10, 2013” »

Episode 37: A Quest To Melly Mell’s

This week, Arts Extract Podcast co-host Scott Gordon and Isthmus food critic Andre Darlington take a food journey to Melly Mell’s, a soul-food institution located behind a metal door and down a flight of stairs on Madison’s south side. Hear owner and cook Carmel Jackson boast about her desserts and hear Scott and Andre trying to figure out how the hell to get there.

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Madison Arts Reads, May 3, 2013

Madison’s bi-annual Gallery Night, returning this evening, can often feel more about socializing and free wine than about art, but there are always at least a few compelling works to be found. Lindsay Christians hunts down five potentially worthwhile spots for The Capital Times, and SpackleMadison.com offers this top 10. (Arts Extract is also offering the latter in podcast form.) For the truly brave, there’s full map and listing of Gallery Night events on the back cover of Isthmus.

In other visual-art news, Isthmus reports that UW-Madison’s long-running Tandem Press has been forced to move from its east-side space.

Before Ian MacKaye of Fugazi and Dischord Records visited UW-Madison this Tuesday, The Daily Cardinal ran this interview. Afterward, I wrote this recap for Isthmus.

Capital City Hues checks in on the history of breakdancing in Madison in this piece on UW’s Breakin’ The Law event, which returns this week.

Episode 36: He Walked On My Friend’s Face

This week, the Arts Extract podcast welcomes two guests for a couple of esoteric conversations. In our first segment, Justin Taylor of metal blog goodshakes.com helps preview several worthwhile metal and noise-rock shows coming to Madison this spring and summer, including performances from some solid locally based acts. Next, Madison-based musician Julian Lynch joins hosts Mark Riechers and Joel Shanahan in assessing Free Comic Book Day and discussing their respective comics addictions.

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A selection from Chad Smith and Brad Cross' show at UW-Madison Gallery 7.

Spackle Madison’s Gallery Night Picks

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s biannual Gallery Night, returning this Friday, spreads art all over Madison. As fun as it can be, Gallery Night is also something of an un-curated, overwhelming mess. To winnow down your browsing, our friends at local art blog Spackle Madison have posted a concise guide to 10 Gallery Night picks.

Want Spackle’s wisdom on your mobile device? We’ll put the text and a brief audio rundown in a bonus episode on our podcast feed this week.

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Madison Arts Reads, April 26, 2013

Isthmus writer Elliot Hughes covers the new Revelry music festival by making a point that bears repeating: In Madison, music festivals tend to fizzle out pretty quickly. It’s so easy for the press to simply greet music events like Revelry with too much fanfare, getting caught up in the spurious marketing hype, so it’s worth noting the difference between starting a music fest and actually making it last.

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