Custom Designed Lighting, Sound & Video

2273 S. Howell Ave.

(414) 744-0782

custom-designed.us

cdlsv@yahoo.com

Open 12-5pm, Monday-Friday1. What is Custom Designed Lighting, Sound & Video?

CDLSV is part retail, part contractor business that focuses on the music and lighting industry, but also has its hands in surveillance systems and video applications. CDLSV is an established business in the Bay View community and has served the greater Milwaukee area for over 20 years. Mobile DJs and business owners are our main type of customer as well as the occasional band. We supply everything from cords to complete sound and lighting systems as well as everything in between, i.e. lighting effects, fog machines, lasers, and bubble machines.

2. Do you install sound systems in cars and homes?

No.

3. What kind of equipment and services do you sell?

We sell many different items ranging from safety cables and halogen bulbs to amplifiers, speakers, and rack equipment (including racks) to mobile DJ systems to surveillance systems to lighting equipment, intelligent DMX lighting, and standalone lighting like par cans, lasers, color wash, pin spots, black lights, stands, etc. We are a distributor for numerous manufacturers.

4. What is your rental service?

We rent sound and lighting packages for most any sized crowd. We have systems that are perfect for bands and live DJs, and we also have a very popular system for the not-so-technical DJ. This system is rented out mostly for smaller parties and wedding receptions. Our lighting packages are inexpensive and easy to set up on your own. Lighting packages can be standard par cans, which are solid colored lights, or you can choose from our array of special effects lighting, which can include fog machines, laser lights, or the new LED lights that have been hitting the market lately. Some of those lights can be really fun to watch, and setup is a cinch.

5. Why is one of your websites called the DJ Store?

We have a few sites out there right now. The DJ Store is our e-commerce site…Currently, our web developer is designing a new site that will merge all of our sites together. This new site will not only contain a shopping cart, but also a message board for local musicians and DJs who have services available, and those who need to hire a band or DJ can search our site for available musicians.

6. How has your area of the Bay View business district changed since you’ve been in your store on Howell & Lincoln?

It has been said that Bay View is the up-and-coming East Side. Unfortunately, there are some individuals who put this statement to the test. Since CDLSV has established itself in the community, we have helped to reduce crime by working with the local police district and the alderman. We have helped to put people behind bars for committing crimes against other individuals. CDLSV has a standard that we adhere to very closely: Crime in our neighborhood is not welcome here. Our own surveillance systems have caught many people in the acts of wrongdoing, and it is directly because of this that the crime rate has been reduced and some of the remaining riffraff have moved on to other places. Our surveillance systems have also helped to protect our customers’ businesses.

7. What are some other services you provide besides renting equipment?

We provide service calls and quotes on what an installation would cost for a business owner looking to add/upgrade a new or existing sound, lighting, or video display/security system.

8. What is the most interesting show/act that you’ve provided sound for?

All of the shows/acts that we have provided sound for are unique and interesting in one way or another. We do a lot of sound for local acts and for some famous acts.

9. What is the most challenging aspect of your business?

The most challenging part of this business is the number crunching. Our goal is to meet or beat our competitor’s price. It takes time to investigate products our distributors have, compare prices, and compile quotes.

10. What is a mobile DJ?

A mobile DJ is someone who DJs at small parties or nightclubs/bars. Mobile DJs are the fabric of local music in dance clubs, bars, and nightclubs you find throughout our great city.

Groppi’s expanding

Neighborhood grocery store G. Groppi Food Market, 1441 S. Russell Ave., is undergoing an expansion.

1,800 square feet will be added to the legendary corner store to expand its meat and seafood sections, adding new items like veal and lamb. The addition will also include a larger area for wine, beer, and liquor, and a fine cheese case, according to Groppi’s website.

Italian immigrants Giocondo and Giorgina Groppi originally founded the family-run business in 1913. The current owners are John and Anne Nehring. Their daughter, Katie Nehring, manages the store.

“The extra space will create a bigger and better place to shop,” Katie Nehring said. “This will give our customers a wider selection so they don’t have to go all the way to a Pick ’n Save, or an Outpost.”

The addition will include a wine bar offering, Friday night wine tastings, and craft beer on tap.

The Nehrings hope the expansion will be finished by January 2011. The store will remain open during construction.

Groppi’s store hours are Monday through Friday, 7am to 8pm; Saturday and Sunday 7am to 7pm

A Divine evening

On an unusually warm October evening in Milwaukee, Cecilia Appianim was bundled in a coat and scarf, sipping on a steaming cup of hot cocoa from Sven’s European Café. Warm in Wisconsin is chilly in Ghana.

Billy Linstead-Goldsmith, national coordinator of Fair Trade Towns-USA, listens as Ghanaian cocoa farmer Cecilia Appianim discusses how fair trade has impacted her life at Sven’s Café Oct. 10. ~photo Jennifer Janviere

Attendees enjoyed a vegetarian meal prepared by Sven’s staff, Fair Hills wine, and Divine chocolate samples. Appianim and Linstead-Goldsmith gave a presentation.

On her fourth visit to the United States, Appianim spoke about being a member of Kuapa Kokoo, the largest fair trade cooperative in Ghana, and the personal and social impact fair trade has had on her and her community.

“In Ghana, Kuapa Kokoo means ‘good farmer,’” Appianim told the Compass. “When you hear ‘Kuapa Kokoo,’ you say ‘Pa! Pa! Paa!’ back and that means best of the best.”

In her village of Asentem, Appianim farms the 10 acres of land she inherited from her grandmother, who also farmed cocoa. Instead of hiring help to harvest the crops, Appianim and her neighbors go by the “Enuabua” principle, which, in the local language, means “You help me today, and I’ll help you tomorrow.”

Appianim is also a community firefighter and a Kuapa Kokoo purchasing clerk.

Kuapa Kokoo was founded in 1993 after the Body Shop and Comic Relief introduced fair trade to Ghana. The co-op began with just 1,200 farms, Appianim’s joining in 1997. Today, Kuapa Kokoo counts nearly 50,000 farms, with its farmers owning 40 percent of the organization, according to the Fair Trade Foundation’s website.
In the fair trade world, Milwaukee has had quite an impact, Linstead-Goldsmith said. Milwaukee is the largest American city considered a “fair trade” city, according to the evening’s presentation.

“Milwaukee may not seem like a very trendy place to some, but you guys really are leading the country at bringing awareness to the fair trade movement, so we’re honored to be here,” Linstead-Goldsmith said.

In the United Kingdom, 80 percent of people are aware of the fair trade movement, according to Linstead-Goldsmith, while only 30 percent of Americans know what fair trade is.

Tony Zielinski, 14th District alderman, was presented with a bottle of Fair Hills fair trade wine from the Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition as an award for his efforts in bringing awareness of fair trade to Milwaukee.

Steve Watrous’ Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition sponsored the event. “Our mission here tonight is to create a demand for fair trade and sweat-free products in Milwaukee,” Watrous said.

The Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition also sponsored the Fair Trade Bazaar at the Milwaukee Public Market Oct. 23.

Retail scooter boutique on Howell

An entrepreneur has opened a retail boutique selling motorized scooters in Bay View.

Wauwatosa resident Tyyon Hagans opened Scooters Unique, 2473 S. Howell Ave., Oct. 23. Hagans gave away a 50cc 2010 model scooter at her grand opening.

Hagans used to be a nail technician/manicurist but said she got tired of that. She’d become interested in small bike engines mounted on mountain bikes and had previously sold some scooters on Craigslist and out of her garage.

She’s happy to now have a storefront in time for the holiday shopping season. Scooters Unique is zoned LB2, but the Board of Zoning Appeals granted Hagans a special-use permit for motor vehicle sales Oct. 7.

Hagans especially wants women to feel comfortable shopping for, and confident they can own and operate, scooters. “I know a lot of women are intimidated when they go to motorcycle places,” Hagans said, but she wants to provide a low-pressure environment where customers feel comfortable.

She’s planning her first ladies night for mid-November where an instructor will show women how easy it is to change the oil and maintain their scooters.

Hagans expects her motorcycle dealership license from the state Jan. 1, but said she’s able to sell up to five scooters before then. Hagans said she sells higher-end China-made scooters. She’ll also sell bicycle engines, but not bicycles.

Hagans added that she offers no-credit-check financing and interest-free layaway.

She decided on the approximately 650-square-foot Bay View location after finding the storefront advertised on Craigslist.

Scooter Unique’s hours are Tuesday-Friday, 2-6:30pm and Saturdays, 2-5pm. More info: (414) 875-3000 or scootersunique.info.

As installation begins, cameras still under scrutiny

The Kinnickinnic Avenue Business Improvement District (BID #44) met Oct. 11 to further discuss the security cameras that will be installed along Kinnickinnic Avenue between Morgan Avenue and Becher Street, in addition to new business.

Board member Bill Doyle, who has been supervising the surveillance camera project, announced that Advance Electrical Contractors is performing the installation, and that there were currently two sites where the cameras are in operation. Cameras were installed on the Joyce Parker Productions building at 2685 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., owned by board member and BID secretary Joyce Parker, and on Hairys Hair Bar at 2385 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.

There are about 10 criteria that must be considered before a camera can be installed, Doyle said. A building must have internet access, permission of the property owner, permission of the tenant/s, and someone to monitor the cameras.

“If there are 10 ingredients to getting these cameras mounted, then we need to wait until we have all 10 ingredients before installing these cameras,” Doyle said when asked where the cameras would be located. “‘Where’ cannot be determined until all the conditions have been met.”

Board members emphasized that the cameras’ purpose is to deter crime.

Salon Thor co-owner David Brazeau, who previously installed three security cameras on his own dime on his business at 3128 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., attended the meeting and was very vocal about his sentiments regarding the installation of the BID’s cameras. His tone and his questions to Doyle suggested he was suspicious of the BID’s intent with the cameras.

Brazeau expressed concern that tax dollars he paid for the BID be used fairly and wisely. He implied that vigilance was needed to ensure that no one entity or business benefited disproportionately from the placement of the cameras or the awarding of the contract for their installation.

“We’re not going to let one suspicious opinion create a bureaucratic nightmare,” Doyle retorted, and said he’d made it clear there wasn’t anything unethical going on.

The BID had a $45,000 budget for 2010. $40,000 of the budget is going toward the installation and operation of the security cameras and $5,000 went to graffiti cleaning.

New business discussed Oct. 11 included the formation of two subcommittees, which will be solidified at the next meeting. One committee would be in charge of promoting the Kinnickinnic Avenue area, and the other would consider the design and attractiveness of the area. These topics were selected based on survey responses that asked those in the BID to rank their priorities for improving the business corridor. Meeting attendees were asked to join the committees.

The KK BID board members are Bill Doyle, Michael Krolick, Michael Marx, Greg Mertens, Joyce Parker, Ron Romero, Steve Ste. Marie, and Jason Wedesky.

The next meeting is 6pm Nov. 15 at Joyce Parker Productions. The public is welcome.

Katherine Keller contributed to this report.

Priorities for KK Businesses

1. marketing/promoting of Bay View businesses

2. cleanliness of streets/sidewalks

3. overall attractiveness of KK Avenue

4. security issues

5. parking issues

6. pedestrian safety

7. commercial building facades

8. mix of businesses

9. quality of goods/services

10. traffic concerns, i.e. speeding, crosswalks, etc.

11. added greenery (planters, etc.)

12. loitering

13. recycling availability

14. garbage pick-up

15. use of Zillman Park on KK, special events, etc.

16. banners on light posts

The BID board released this summary of priorities for the Kinnickinnic Avenue business corridor, as identified by responses to its survey soliciting the opinions of those in the business improvement district. Fifty-one surveys were returned as of Aug. 23. The highest priority identified by business owners was marketing and promoting Bay View businesses. The results are based on the number of respondents who tallied each issue as “Extremely Important” on the returned survey.

Local consequences of global warming predicted by Wisconsin scientists

Warmer, rainier winters and more intense storms would pose stormwater management challenge

When heavy rains and flooding collapsed an East Side manhole, turning an urban intersection into a sinkhole that swallowed a Cadillac Escalade, some people were probably wondering if Milwaukee’s July 22 storm was a freak event or a sign of things to come.

Scientists agree that no one can predict future weather with total confidence. But recently, Wisconsin scientists have “downscaled” global models of climate change onto the Badger State to prepare for the likely local impacts of predicted and observed trends—a gradual average annual temperature increase, warmer and rainier winters, and more intense storms.

“Our climate is variable; it has been changing; and we have not been managing our resources as if that’s the case,” said David Liebl, statewide stormwater specialist at the UW-Cooperative Extension and a member of the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change (WICCI).

“It’s interesting that in Wisconsin we’ve got regulation in stormwater quality but almost nothing about stormwater quantity.”
—David Liebl, statewide stormwater specialist

In an effort now being emulated across the continent, WICCI climate scientists Dan Vimont, Steve Vavrus, and Dave Lorenz developed a method to focus the global climate models assessed by the International Panel on Climate Change in 2007 onto a smaller geographic area, in our case, the upper Midwest.

What the Models Predict

Over the next half-century, the models predict an annual mean temperature increase of between 4 and 9 degrees Fahrenheit statewide. Warming is expected to be most pronounced during winter. The models also predicted a small, gradual increase in annual precipitation.

But perhaps more important with regard to stormwater management, Liebl said, is that the models are in greater agreement about a precipitation increase in late winter and spring. “Most of flooding takes place in springtime,” Liebl said. “That’s not a good time to be getting more precipitation in general.”

And warmer temperatures will increase the likelihood of that precipiation being rain instead of snow. With the ground frozen, ice blocking storm drains, and without transpiration from trees and plants, significant increases in stormwater runoff could overwhelm existing infrastructure, resulting in greater flood risk.

“Right now most flood-related management strategies are based on previous experience of floods,” Liebl said. “Our concern is if flood peaks are getting considerably higher, we’ll never be in a position to manage floodwater because it will always be a little more flooding than expected.”

Challenge for Infrastructure

Liebl said urban storm drains were typically designed to handle so-called “10-year” rain events over 24 hours, or the amount of rainfall with a 10-percent chance in any year. Streets carry any volume above that. But in Wisconsin, Liebl said those “normal” volumes were calculated based on mid-20th-century rainfall data from a historically dry period. Add to that the “very gradual, long-term” increase in precipitation overall—plus the increase in the amount of precipitation during storms and incrementally larger surface flows—and actual 10-year rain events will be incrementally larger in volume, meaning that much existing infrastructure is not currently adequate to convey all that stormwater.

Liebl’s group is not suggesting a total revamp of existing sewer systems, but he said new infrastructure should follow updated data trends. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association is due to recalculate rainfall data for Wisconsin in 2011, incorporating the storms of the past few years, Liebl said, which should help infrastructure designers gain a more accurate picture of how much precipitation is possible.

“It’s important to realize that the design standards are used—they’re not arbitrary—but they don’t take into effect the size of rainfall that could occur,” Liebl said. Even so, he said the costs and benefits have to be weighed. “No matter how much we increase the capacity of our infrastructure there will always be more rain.”

Recommendations & Outlook

WICCI’s next task is educating the public and stakeholders about the risks and management options to deal with a changing climate that has already lengthened growing seasons and altered bird migrations in Wisconsin.

Liebl hopes that increased awareness will encourage land-use more sensitive to stormwater management, for individuals and across communities. “It’s interesting that in Wisconsin we’ve got regulation in stormwater quality but almost nothing about stormwater quantity,” Liebl said.

He doesn’t believe a large regulating authority is the answer, and said that communities’ self-interest should motivate them. Planning low-impact development and reducing impervious surfaces are two ways to be smart about stormwater. In already-built environments like the city, anything that promotes on-site infiltration—rain gardens, rain barrels, porous pavement, green roofs, and bioretention swales—can help reduce stormwater runoff.

Liebl compared stormwater management to Wisconsin’s snow shoveling ethic. “Everybody knows snowfall is something you have to deal with,” Liebl said. “Rainfall has a way of going downhill, out of sight, out of mind.”

But he said people need to remember that stormwater has consequences downstream, even if not always as dramatic as an SUV sputtering in a sinkhole.

Rain Gauge Data

At the end of 2009 there were approximately 240 weather stations submitting precipitation data to the state’s official climate network, according to assistant state climatologist Ed Hopkins of the Wisconsin State Climatology Office, part of UW-Madison’s Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department.

Another 65 citizen monitoring stations in Wisconsin participated in CoCoRaHS, the Community Collaboration Rain, Hail & Snow network that is now nationwide and reports data at cocorahs.org.

Hopkins said there’s definitely a need to modernize the state’s rain gauge data network but that the effort will boil down to money and commitment.

A Need for Better Data

Better data can help scientists refine their climate models and make better recommendations about how to manage stormwater.

Scientists are already using weather radar to actually measure the amount of rainfall from storms, Liebl said, which should provide more precise precipitation data as well as better alert people about flood potential.

Continuous hydrologic modeling would be a useful tool to better understand stormwater risks, Liebl said, but the state will need more rain and stream gauges to collect quality real-time data. “Right now people are probably not aware of how few rain gauges we have in Wisconsin,” Liebl said. The same goes for stream gauges, he said. “We don’t have as many as we need to be as accurate as possible.”

Over the next five to 10 years, Liebl also expects much more robust climate models as climate scientists develop new analytical methods.

Greendale’s Bioretention Swales

In 2009, when planning a Municipal Street Improvement Project along Grange Avenue between 60th and 68th streets, the Village of Greendale added median bioretention swales with wild flowers, mulch, and engineered soils that serve to remove silt and pollutants from stormwater runoff before it flows into Dale Creek.

Carl Tisonik, Greendale director of public works, said the project has exceeded expectations. The project was budgeted at $220,000, Tisonik said, and the state provided 80 percent of the funding; the village 20 percent.

Tisonik credits Greendale engineer Len Roecker with the idea and MMSD for PR support. Tisonik said he’s gotten calls from as far as Florida and Nevada asking about the project.

Trees Help Manage Stormwater

One of the recommendations for managing stormwater is to increase tree cover. “For every 5 percent of tree cover added to a community, stormwater is reduced by approximately 2 percent,” according to a presentation, “Trees and Their Role in Storm Water Management,” by Mindy Habecker at the Dane County UW-Extension.

In 2009, the city of Milwaukee’s estimated tree cover was 21.5 percent, according Forestry Services Manager David Sivyer, up from 16.5 percent in 1998. In the 3,732-acre 14th Aldermanic District, tree cover is 20 percent (Forestry’s goal is 30 percent) and grass cover is 26 percent, according to Sivyer.

Forestry has been more focused on “Emerald Ash Borer readiness” and has not moved forward with any private tree-planting initiatives, Sivyer said. However, in spite of the economy, Forestry’s funding for street tree replacement is holding steady, Sivyer said, and they’ve added over 2,400 shade trees to boulevards over the past couple years.

A CITYgreen spatial analysis of Milwaukee’s urban tree canopy estimated the stormwater benefit at $15 million, according to Sivyer, but this study did not project increased stormwater reduction benefits associated with increasing canopy.

Milwaukee Bioswales

In an effort to increase stormwater quality, the city of Milwaukee has installed approximately 20 bioswales on N. 92nd Street from Capitol Drive to Good Hope Road and about 10 on Grange Avenue from 26th Street east to the freeway, according to Scott Baran, with DPW’s Environmental Services.

Both projects are helping Milwaukee attempt to reach its goal of reducing the city’s total suspended solids loading. DNR has mandated that the city attempt to reach a 40-percent reduction in TSS by 2013, which Baran termed “a very ambitious goal.”

More bioswale projects are anticipated for S. Bay St. in 2011, and a project along S. Sixth Street from Howard to Layton is under consideration.

“These bioswales have been well received so far and also help with beautifying the boulevards,” Baran said, and have included the addition of 100 new street trees.

Stream Gauge Data

In Wisconsin, the U.S. Geological Service maintains 230 stream gauges, according to Rob Waschbusch, USGS hydrologist. It costs about $12,500 per stream gauge plus $11,500 to run each gauge annually, Waschbusch said. USGS can contribute 30 percent of new gauge costs if it gets a 70 percent local match.

WICCI is a partnership between the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was developed in 2007 after a bipartisan committee of state legislators wanted to know how climate change would affect their constituents and districts. Focus on Energy funded the climate research, supported by UW-Madison and DNR. A report synthesizing the predictions and recommendations of the WICCI working groups is expected by early 2011. More info: wicci.wisc.edu.

Source for all images: David Liebl’s Sept. 14, 2010 WICCI presentation, “Projected Climate Impacts and Adaptation Strategies for Wisconsin’s Urban Areas.”

Broads create smart, bold comedy

On a recent Monday night up in Melissa Kingston’s Bay View Terrace condo, the four ladies of broadminded comedy were busy discussing zombies. In particular, zombies of the Resident Evil variety, and if their audience will make the connection between the evil corporation in the video games and Microsoft.

Zombies made the agenda as Milwaukee’s only all-female comedy troupe planned its final show of the year, Lions and Tigers and Zombies?, which opens mid-November at Bay View’s Alchemist Theatre.

Affectionately known as the broads, since 2006 Stacy Babl, Anne Graff LaDisa, Kingston, and Megan McGee have written and performed comedy sketches on topics ranging from current events and politics to pop and geek culture. Think Saturday Night Live, but much smarter, even less afraid, and more local—with added gender-bending twists.

The broads have learned how to mix physical and low-brow humor with clever, biting satire or witty spoofs. Just one example—a sketch written by McGee where real humans act out the poking, friending, and sheep-throwing synonymous with virtual friendships on Facebook.

Each of their shows has a theme. Lions and Tigers and Zombies? follows the likes of Science & Surplus and Blue Plate Special. The broads have portrayed everything from drunk, beer-bellied male deer hunters up north; to pit-scratching, drug-addicted primates in a lab; to toga-clad senators debating curriculum planning in ancient Rome.

So zombies are really not too far afield, and the diversity of the broads’ real-world interests and backgrounds provides fodder for a wide range of material.

“That’s the good thing about having four different people,” McGee said. “You have totally different viewpoints. If one person doesn’t get it, that’s kind of like, ‘Is a quarter of the audience not going to get it?’”

The broads say they ultimately write for themselves and figure that if at least one of them finds a joke funny, chances are some in the audience will, too.

Who Are These Broads?

Each of the four quick-witted broads is college-educated, and each brings different styles and experiences to the creative process.

McGee’s onstage persona snaps like an energetic Slinky. She’s brought to life characters ranging from the nasal misfit, Helen, who cites her adherence to the metric system in defense of a skirt length that violates the office policy by two inches, to a hooded male teenager with excessively baggy jeans confessing his “rebel” aspirations to a priest. “People didn’t realize who it was,” McGee said of the wannabe rebel. “It’s fun to get to the point where you’re a different person. That’s hard to pull off.”

More recently, she played a stodgy anthropology professor who breaks down the history of everything with a rapid-fire narration to the tune of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”—synched to a slideshow that poked fun at both science and creationism.

Offstage, when she’s not working in customer service for Direct Supply, the Riverwest resident is also one determined broad. McGee spends hours editing the group’s videos and scoured The Wizard of Oz for material for the upcoming show. She said she’s always looking for ways to push things to be funnier, to, in her words, “punch them up.”

Graff LaDisa, a Wauwatosa resident who by day is a pharmacist at Aurora Sinai Hospital, is the most soft-spoken of the group. One of her favorite characters to portray was the loveable Pluto, forced to deal with its ex-planet status at the equivalent of an interplanetary high school dance. And then there’s her recurring Sally Ann, the inspiration for broadminded’s “My boyfriend is a Jedi” T-shirts.

“She was in our very first show, and that sketch was one of the first things I wrote for broadminded,” Graff LaDisa said. “She’s just an awkward, nerdy teenager, but at the same time she has a confidence about her because she knows who she is. It’s fun to see her interact with people because she lives in her own world.”

Graff LaDisa has also been known to tote out a guitar or ukulele to deliver a song—or quasi-song.

“I enjoy playing roles where there are opportunities for laughs without a word being spoken,” Graff LaDisa said. “It challenges your sense of comedic timing, and when you get it right, it feels great.”

Kingston, a Bay View resident who teaches kindergarten in Oak Creek, is extroverted and boisterous both onstage and off, with a bounding energy that doubtless carries over into her classroom. She speaks excitedly with small hand gestures, and, in conversation, punctuates a characteristic spiel on politics with an oft-used question, “What’s up with that?”

Kingston’s characters range widely, though she often is cast as a doddering male, and can put on a number of thick foreign accents—and sometimes a thicker mustache to boot. She’s enjoyed playing Mary Poppins at a job placement workshop and Wildflower Gingerroot, “a hippie that has lost her way and ended up married to a right-wing Republican trucker who has showed her the error of her ways,” Kingston said.

She takes pride in addressing political and cultural topics through her writing. “I like that I was able to frame nuclear war/energy conservation in a fun dysfunctional family scene, and also I love that we anthropomorphized the planets into a teen drama,” said Kingston, who will play the zombie scarecrow in the new show.

Babl lives in Milwaukee and works at a hotel in human resources, but her broadminded alter-egos tend to be sarcastic and/or wild—she’s been prone to launch her body across the stage. “A high tolerance for pain has its rewards,” Babl said, “as does a mother who wouldn’t let her daughter with the gaping hole in her knee come in the house to clean up the wound until she stopped crying.”

Babl’s the force behind the sketch about zombies and Microsoft, and the issues she’s able to address through her characters are complex. She played Hubbard, a la L. Ron, in the aforementioned sketch where the ancient Romans debate their curriculum priorities. She also portrayed “a sarcastic and very pregnant woman” who called out “the ridiculous pregnant lady who walks past a person on the sidewalk smoking and is convinced her unborn baby is now harmed for life.” In Science & Surplus, Babl was crybaby North Korea in Kingston’s “Nuclear Family” sketch, and the wiry actress has a habit of transforming into Elvis when you least expect it.

McGee and Graff LaDisa met each other in the early 2000s at ComedySportz, where they played on the same minor league team, Your Dad’s Constituents, and later met Babl and Kingston. Broadminded first performed at the 2006 Milwaukee Sketch and Improv Fest, originally including three other women. Soon after, when time commitment needed to put together quality material became clear, the group shrank to its current four members.

Bay View’s Alchemist Theatre, with its theater-for-rent philosophy, has been the broads’ home base since it opened in 2007, though they’ve performed at the Chicago Sketch Fest, for private parties, and hope to go to Austin, Texas next year.

Bringing It All Together

Writing comedy that actually makes people laugh is hard enough, but the broads also create content collaboratively. “You might have an idea for a line,” Babl said, “but then [the others] up the ante, and it rolls and becomes hilarious.”

With four different personalities to reconcile, the broads developed rules and a regimen that sprang from their backgrounds in improv. One of broadminded’s rules is that everyone writes something for every show. A sketch’s author is also its director and usually an actor. Casting can be more collaborative.

“We’re at a point where if there’s a role that would probably make someone uncomfortable to play it, we’d probably cast them in it right away,” McGee said, with Kingston poking the mild-mannered Graff LaDisa in the ribs.

It also takes guts to share one’s work and be open to change. “When you bring a sketch that you think is good, and then you open it up, and [the other broads] are like [despondent sigh], you feel like you’re losing something that’s yours,” Kingston said.

“I researched molecular biology, and it took two hours,” Babl chimed in, commenting about the work it sometimes takes to write a sketch.

“But if you want more fart jokes, fine,” McGee said, laughing.

The broads are also students of their craft. Kingston points to a recent appearance by Betty White on Inside the Actors Studio, hosted by James Lipton, as a study in comedy. “You want to talk about someone who wouldn’t break [character]? That woman never breaks,” Kingston said.

Babl, who emulates the sarcasm of Arrested Development’s Michael Bluth, derives some inspiration from television shows like The Carol Burnett Show and Laugh-in. But she recently was an extra on the set of Entourage. Graff LaDisa complimented Babl on the organizational principles she brought back from her experience. “Instead of watching Jeremy Piven, she’s watching the script supervisor,” Graff LaDisa said. “Then she comes back and is like, ‘This is how we’re going to run our video.’”

Babl and McGee both graduated from the Second City Conservatory program in Chicago, a series of advanced improv classes. McGee is the only broad with a formal education in theater. She finds inspiration in a YouTube series, Auto-Tune the News, which parodies news clips by converting the speakers’ words into quantized song vocals.

The broads are sometimes fighting the perception that their shows are geared for only women.

“Yeah we’re all women, and yeah, that makes us unique, but it’s not like a chick flick,” Babl said. “We try to stop ourselves and say, ‘Is this only a female perspective?’”

McGee said the group’s tagline is “by women, for everyone.”

“We try hard to make things that are smart, clever, topical, relatable,” Kingston said.

Lions and Tigers and…Zombies?

Broadminded’s press release describes the November show as “The Wizard of Oz meets the Cranberries, pessimism meets optimism, the far west suburbs meets the central city.” Five of the sketches will be set to music.

For the program, Kingston wrote a musical mash-up, where different ideas and songs are mashed together, including a medley about voting that pits the apathetic versus “those that think voting is this magical part of citizenry.” Each person has her own song, one of which spoofs a John Lennon tune and another the already-parodied Avenue Q.

Some sketches get fully written out, while other sketches get “beat” out using more improvisational techniques. Still others are prerecorded, like Graff LaDisa’s commercial about a particular fast food sandwich.

Videos have become a staple of broadminded’s shows, as they allow time for costume changes and for material that doesn’t translate easily to stage. Past video sketches featured the symptoms of the fictional disease “Alcohol Induced Pole Dancing” and the “Statistics of Online Dating.”

Videos in between sketches also build and control the show’s rhythm, according to McGee, as do other theatrical transitions like short setups with a punch line before a blackout. For Zombies, for example, Babl wrote a short about the Black Friday shopping ritual.

Given the show’s title, McGee said she felt compelled to write two sketches spoofing The Wizard of Oz, which will bracket the show and may or may not involve live animals. “No one will get mauled,” McGee promised, adding that there will be no live lions or tigers. Live zombies, however, are guaranteed.

Michael Timm contributed to this report.

Broadminded comedy’s shows are recommended for age 14 and up. Lions and Tigers and Zombies? runs at the Alchemist Theatre, 2569 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., 8pm on Nov. 12-13 and Nov. 19-21. Admission is $8.

God’s Outlaw

It all started when a Johnny Cash cassette tape got stuck in Brian Smith’s truck.

As that tape played over and over during his commute, the plunking guitar and Cash’s baritone voice grabbed Smith like never before. The music took the Bay View resident back to his childhood and memories of road trips with his grandfather, who would play music by country singers Boxcar Willie, Conway Twitty, and, of course, Johnny Cash. Hearing Cash’s tales about an honest man’s struggles, a prisoner’s longing to be free, and his classic Christian message resonated with Smith’s own religious beliefs.

Smith had been the singer for the hard rock band Double Life until its breakup in 2002. Following a year and a half of “musical abstinence,” Smith said that he felt driven to pick up a guitar and figure out the three chords that comprise most of Cash’s songs.

With those songs in hand, Smith found a chance to play at the Commodore (now Hector’s) on Delaware. Folks thought he sounded pretty good, so he pressed on. By 2008, Smith had begun playing the aptly named “Sunday Morning Coming Down” shows at Frank’s Power Plant. Soon he had a ragtag band behind him to fill out the sound. Smith’s former band mate Eric “E-Man” Bulgrin rejoined him, with a twangy Fender Telecaster electric guitar in hand. That same year, upright bass player Steve “Naked Man” Ramlow joined the band. (He acquired “Naked Man” status for riding his Harley through a campsite wearing nothing but a beard.) With the addition of nickname-less Jason Loveall on fiddle, the band lights people’s britches on fire with their raw country sound.

What Makes It “Outlaw”?

The songs that God’s Outlaw play are the sort of music that people played to deal with the overarching skies of the Western plains and the heat of farmland on a hot day.

“It’s different from what everyone else is doing. We don’t use fancy effects, no exploding barrels of hay. I’ve seen naked guitar players…” Smith said. “I’ve seen it all.”

Smith and company take a different approach from the charts-driven country music that fills the airwaves today.

“Keep it simple so people can understand it,” Smith said is the band’s philosophy, noting that to make the hay explode, “somebody has to light the fire—I’d rather be the one lighting the fire.”

His music is rowdy enough to please the members of Outlaws Motorcycle Club on First Street, where Smith once played a solo show. At the same time, it’s deliberately simple. Their sound breaks away from the norm of overproduced modern country music, hearkening back to a time when the United States had more train tracks than clogged freeways. “I don’t want to do anything that I can’t play live,” Smith said.

While God’s Outlaw performs rowdy covers of songs like T. J. “Red” Arnall’s classic “Cocaine Blues” and has over 95 Johnny Cash songs in their muster, like so many Americans, the band walks the line between sin and redemption.

Take their original song “Ten Rules,” which has a straightforward chorus: “God has just 10 rules. How ’bout you?” Hope for redemption is also the theme in the song “U-Haul,” which is based on a story from Smith’s life. Following a long argument with his wife, Smith took a drive to cool off. Coming home, he saw a U-Haul truck pull up in front of his house. Was it a sign that his marriage had come to an end? Not so—the truck turned around and pulled away, leaving his home intact.

Local Band, Local Focus

When Smith’s voice washed over the crowd at the 2010 Bay View Bash, people instinctively began to tap and nod their heads, do a private little dance. The music felt like hearing from an old friend who’s been gone too long, but is sure glad to visit.

God’s Outlaw’s sound is similar to the Milwaukee honky-tonk band The Carpetbaggers, who have similar instrumentation, even similar hats and clothes. Two key differences are Smith’s voice, which is lower than The Carpetbaggers’ singer-guitarist Matt “MF” Tyner’s, and that God’s Outlaw gets the crowd moving without the help of a drummer. They get along mighty fine without one.

Smith, 40, was born in Pittsburgh, and has lived all over the country, from New Mexico to Michigan. Following his service in the U.S. Air Force, in which he served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Smith settled in Bay View with his wife Lori Walenczyk Smith. The birth of their two daughters in 2001 and 2004 prompted him to trade his career as a mixed martial arts fighter and complete his degree in marketing and mass communications at UW-Milwaukee. He works in sales for RCC Western Wear.

Today, Smith and his band are in the fortunate position of not having to ask for gigs. Instead, venues come to him, a status God’s Outlaw achieved by establishing themselves as a raucous, hard-pickin’ country band. According to the band’s website, they have played dozens of shows in the past two years, ranging from the aforementioned Bash, Harley-Davidson’s 105th Anniversary festival, and Smith’s solo shows for patients at the St. Ann Center for Intergenerational Care. There, even the infirm come alive, moving their hands and heads to the familiar sound of Johnny Cash.

At this moment, aside from playing military tribute shows at Rocco’s, the band is focused on recording their first album at Basement Tapes in downtown Milwaukee. True to form, the recordings will be made with analog tape, rather than digitally. And when the album comes out next year, you’d be right to reckon they’ll throw a mighty good party—without any exploding hay bales.

Upcoming Gigs: Rodeo Bar, 4177 S. Howell Ave., Nov. 23, 2:30-5:30pm. With Cathouse Drifters and Western Starlanders.

Releases: three EPs due out in late 2010, full album early 2011.

Pumpkin Pavilion prep and lighting

The Bay View Neighborhood Association’s family-friendly Pumpkin Pavilion event Oct. 22 and 23 at Humboldt Park was preceded by volunteers cutting and gutting hundreds of pumpkins donated by Swan’s Pumpkin Farm so that neighborhood residents and children could carve them into jack-o’-lanterns.

Volunteers hollowed out pumpkins outside Club Garibaldi Oct. 20 and at the Humboldt Park Pavilion Oct. 21, before more carving and the grand lighting Oct. 22.

Watercolorist George Burns was native son of Bay View

By Anna Passante

Bay View Oracle yearbook photo of Burns, 1930. The “Sem”—short for the St. Francis Seminary Woods—was for many Bay View neighborhood kids the most wonderful playground in the world, according to George T. Burns, who shared his memories in the 1993 issue of the Bay View Historian.

“We thought of the ‘Sem’ as belonging to us,” Burns recalled. “With a feeling for the place much like that the ancient Druids had for their sacred groves. For example, one night one boy inadvertently stepped on a grave and said, ‘Excuse me,’ and only half in jest.”

Swinging through the trees like Tarzan in summer and skating on the frozen ponds in winter, Burns likened their experiences in the “Sem” to the exploits of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Life of Education

Born July 10, 1911, Burns moved to Bay View at the age of 10 and attended Trowbridge Elementary School. After graduating from Bay View High School in 1930, Burns graduated from the Milwaukee State Teachers College in 1935, and went on to earn a masters in education from Columbia University in 1941.

In the late 1930s, Burns worked in the wooden toy unit of the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, a division of the Works Progress Administration. His childhood friend Dick Wiken also worked there. Burns managed the production of educational wooden toys made for nursery schools, public schools, and institutions around the country. He also designed a number of toys, including a tugboat, freight train, and barges.

According to the Spring/Summer 2006 issue of Milwaukee History, Burns and his fellow toy designers, Ed Wichman and Ray Wilcox, believed that they owned their designs. The three men went to the Playskool toy company in Chicago, hoping to sell 10 of their designs at $100 each. (Playskool, now part of Hasbro, was started by former Milwaukee teachers in 1928 and moved to Chicago in 1935.) The men were only offered $100—for all 10 designs.

“Since we had barely enough money to get down there, we took the hundred dollars and went home, and decided that we couldn’t compete with the commercial people,” Burns recalled in Milwaukee History.

Art after Retirement

In his spare time, Burns painted and exhibited his drawings and paintings, especially his watercolors, around the area. In a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article Burns explained, “I won a few prizes, but I was too busy earning a living to be able to promote an art career…”

But in retirement Burns found the time to paint and exhibit his work. In July 2002, 63 of Burn’s paintings were exhibited at the Alfons Gallery, located at the School Sisters of St. Francis convent at 1501 S. Layton Blvd. The watercolor and pastel exhibit, entitled Still Life at 90: The Paintings of George T. Burns, included paintings of covered bridges, lighthouses, beached fishing boats, and architectural landmarks.

Sister Barbaralie Stiefermann of the Alfons Gallery remembers Burns as a “dapper” gentleman. Many of Burns former students came to the exhibit, and “it was like a great reunion,” Stiefermann said. The first day of the opening was Burns’ 90th birthday and the next day he flew off to Greece with his niece for a vacation. According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, Burns sketched his way around Athens and the Greek islands with hopes of turning the sketches into watercolors. Asked why he chose watercolor as a medium, Burns told the Journal Sentinel, “I like the clarity of watercolors and also the ability they give me to get out and sketch out of doors.”

Involved in Life

Although Burns moved from Bay View in the late 1930s (after his marriage to wife, Melvada), his heart remained in the old Bay View neighborhood. He was active in the Bay View Historical Society, and according to member John Manke, “Burns was the main person on the slide programs at the society and prepared some of the programs for us to see. He had a wonderful personality and was always helpful in all that he did.”

A quotation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow—“Art is long and time is fleeting”—appears next to Burns’ senior yearbook picture. Burns did indeed have a long art career, in both teaching and painting, but his life was not fleeting. Burns lived to the ripe old age of 97, passing on Jan. 2, 2009. His artwork lives on in exhibition and private collections. Nine months after his death, one of his watercolors, Jones Island, was shown at the Isle of Inspiration: Rediscovering Milwaukee’s Jones Island exhibit at West Bend’s Museum of Wisconsin Art.

Facelift for A.K. Food Mart

By Katherine Keller

A broker for Alpine Commercial Real Estate Services, 2050 N. Commerce St., speaking on condition of anonymity, said his group is under contract to purchase the former Bella’s Fat Cat building at 2737 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.

The group is negotiating with building owner Michael Schmidt, former owner and operator of Bella’s. In mid-October the broker said Alpine expected to close within 60 days, barring any circumstance that would cause them to back out.

The Alpine spokesperson said he has been talking with a number of restaurateurs about leasing the restaurant portion of the building. In addition to the 3,895 square feet of restaurant space, there is a 1,700-square-foot space on the south end of the building that was last occupied by Kinetic Realty.

He said the Kinnickinnic and Russell avenues intersection (Bay View Quick Mart, Sven’s, M&I Bank) and properties north and south of it are the next logical place for commercial development in Bay View, since the Kinnickinnic and Lincoln avenues intersection (Maritime Bank, Wild Flour Bakery, Lulu, etc.) and adjacent properties are nearly fully developed on the north.

“We want to play off some of the positive things happening in Bay View,” he said, and added that he thinks the Vietnamese restaurant Hué has been a good addition to the Kinnickinnic business corridor.

If the purchase materializes, he said Alpine would consider applying for a façade grant to make tuck-pointing repairs.

Aerotropolis Corporation became official today for Mitchell airport area

A meeting today at General Mitchell International Airport will mark the official creation of the Milwaukee Gateway Aerotropolis Corporation, according to Alderman Terry L. Witkowski.

The City of Milwaukee has joined in formal cooperation with seven municipalities in the greater Milwaukee area and Milwaukee County to join the corporation, and today the corporation’s 16-member board will meet to elect officers and adopt bylaws. The meeting will begin at 3 p.m. in the Sijan Room at Mitchell International.

Alderman Witkowski said the creation of the corporation is “the formalization of what was a large task force” working on the process to develop a framework for a Milwaukee area aerotropolis. “Since March of 2008 we’ve been working constructively with the 50-member Airport Area Economic Development Task Force on economic development surrounding the airport, and working toward creating the corporation,” he said.

“Today, as the corporation takes flight, we’re taking a major step forward to help metro Milwaukee become a larger player in the global economy, and many of those 50 task force members will become part of an advisory group that will be integral in the development of an aerotropolis for metro Milwaukee,” the alderman said.

The aerotropolis would provide a system to maximize airport area development, including strategies for drawing both national and international companies to the area, as well as maximizing intermodal connections in metro Milwaukee (rail, highways, shipping/Port of Milwaukee) as they relate to the airport, Alderman Witkowski said.

Mayor Tom Barrett has been a key supporter of the effort to develop a Milwaukee area aerotropolis, and has appointed Department of City Development Commissioner Rocky Marcoux as his city representative to the corporation’s board, Alderman Witkowski said.

Alderman Witkowski also credited and praised the Airport Gateway Business Association and its executive director, Tom Rave, as well as the Airport Gateway Business Improvement District for their work and contributions to help bring about the corporation and the aerotropolis. “Milwaukee area residents and businesses truly need to offer them a sincere ‘thank you’ for everything they’ve done on the project,” he said.

In addition to the city and county, the other municipalities that also approved resolutions to formally be a part of the corporation are Franklin, St. Francis, Cudahy, South Milwaukee, Oak Creek, Greenfield, and Greendale.

Source: Office of Alderman Terry Witkowski

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