http://www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=1065&mname=ArticleGroup VEGGIE TALES en-us 60 Holden Schmidt is just like most 6-year-old boys. He likes playing outside, dinosaurs, pirates, and Star Wars. He has blond hair, blue eyes, and an infectious smile. He is healthy, and of average height and weight for a boy his age. But there is one big difference between Schmidt and most other 6-year-olds: he is a vegetarian. By Jackelyn Wicklund Frontpage Milwaukee reporting staff Feb. 5, 2009 A Harris Interactive poll, sponsored by the Vegetarian Resource Group and conducted in 2006, estimates that approximately 2.3 percent of adults in the United States never eat meat, poultry, or seafood. That makes vegetarians a big minority in this country. But, a major lifestyle decision like vegetarianism is the sort of thing that most people want to pass on to their children. Raising a child vegetarian in a largely meat-eating society comes with its own set of challenges. The first one that probably comes to most people's minds is making sure the child gets all the nutrition he or she needs, which is a concern for omnivorous parents as well. But there are also others. Vegetarian parents have to take care that the pediatrician they choose will be supportive of and knowledgeable about their child's diet. They also have to pay close attention to what their child is eating when they are not around, like at school or daycare. They sometimes have to answer tough questions from their child and others, as well as address concern from friends and family. Read more here. Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:12:00 CST http://www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=20701&mname=Article http://www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=20701&mname=Article Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} By Jackelyn Wicklund FPM vegetarian beat reporter Dec. 16, 2008 When many people hear the word “potluck”, images of drab church basements and folding tables in school gymnasiums probably spring to mind. But at the East Side’s Urban Ecology Center, a different kind of potluck is going on each month. The Urban Ecology Center is a large, wooden, eco-friendly building located in Riverside Park, 1500 E. Park Pl. On the third Thursday of every month, a group of people carrying homemade dishes gather in the loft upstairs for a casual and friendly vegetarian potluck. The potluck is free to attend and open to the public. Attendees are requested to bring a vegetarian dish to pass, and new faces are always welcome with the group. The potluck has several intentions, one being to expose people to the potential of vegetarian cooking and a “greener” way to eat. Another is to provide a space and time for old friends to get together and new friends to meet. November’s potluck featured an eclectic mix of dishes, ranging from coleslaw with peanut sauce to mashed squash. A group of 12 was there to share those dishes over lively conversation. Many of the attendees go each month, and some have even been going for years. The potluck has undergone some changes in those years, including a move from the trailer that used to be the Urban Ecology Center’s home to the new building that opened in 2004. But a core group dedicated to the potluck has kept it alive and helped it to grow. Jean Groshek remembers the earliest days of the potluck. Groshek met Dr. Else Ankel, who is also the founder of the Urban Ecology Center, at a presentation in the early ‘90s. Ankel felt that vegetarianism went hand-in-hand with the goals of her friends and colleagues, and thus the potluck was born. But, it was not always so well attended. “The first year or two there were winter nights when it was just me and Else,” Groshek recalled. Groshek and Ankel stuck with the potluck and, according to Groshek, by the third or fourth year they had a stable group attending each month. The Building The new building is one of the reasons Groshek attributes to the growth of the potluck. Curiosity about the new building, as well as the comfort of being in a public space, not a stranger’s home, make the building an ideal place for the potluck. The goal of the Urban Ecology Center is to teach members of the community about nature, local ecology, and sustainability. The Urban Ecology Center also supports research about the surrounding natural environment. Their new building, which opened in 2004, was built with money from public donations. The building stands two stories high, with a spacious deck wrapping around the second level. Most of the building is natural, unpainted wood. Solar panels cover the roof, and plentiful windows allow as much natural light as possible into the building. The inside of the Urban Ecology Center is as admirable and natural feeling as the outside. The floors and the walls of the building are made from rich, warm hardwood. Most features of the interior are as natural as possible, and many are made from recycled or renewable materials. The potluck is held in a loft space upstairs. The unpainted wooden walls feature artwork with a local focus, including a mural of Wisconsin wildlife, and a painting representing the Great Lakes. High ceilings with exposed heating ducts make the room feel spacious. Potted plants rest on shelves near the windows. A huge wooden table stands in the middle of the room. Chairs made from bark-covered, thick branches surround the table. This huge wooden table is where, once a month, old friends and new acquaintances alike enjoy a collaborative vegetarian meal. The Food The potluck is a great place to go for those who are new to or curious about vegetarianism, which is the second reason Groshek attributed to the potluck’s increased attendance. An online search will provide many different recipes for those who are new to vegetarian cooking and looking to bring something on their first visit. Not everyone in attendance is a vegetarian, though. Those who eat meat, but still want to attend, are quite welcome. “I get the chance to eat food that I don’t normally eat—vegetarian food,” said Gil Walter when asked why he enjoys attending the potluck. A quick list of some of the items at November’s potluck: · Cole slaw with peanut sauce · Scalloped potatoes · Tofu salad · Vegetable stir-fry with rice · Grape salad with pecans · Apple pie · Mashed squash The People The third and final reason that Groshek attributed to potluck attendance was the friendships that keep people coming back. “It’s fun, the food’s good, and there’s good conversation. Most importantly, there’s no pressure. I hate pressure,” said Adolf Rosenblatt, a long-time attendee, about the potluck. That certainly seemed evident by the excited and casual way people spoke amongst themselves around that big wooden table. Topics of conversation at the potluck included many that might be expected of old friends and people supportive of vegetarianism and the Urban Ecology Center. Conversation shifted freely between things like local bird-watching, environmental concerns, Milwaukee events, mutual friends, and compliments to various chefs. To learn more about the Urban Ecology Center and to find the date of the next potluck, go to http://www.urbanecologycenter.org To learn more about other potlucks and vegetarian events in Milwaukee, go to the Milwaukee Area Resources for Vegetarians website at http://www.marveg.org Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:42:00 CST http://www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=20236&mname=Article http://www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=20236&mname=Article By Jackelyn Wicklund Of the Frontpage Milwaukee staff Oct. 31, 2008 Trying to find a good vegetarian restaurant can be tricky, especially in Milwaukee, the land of bratwurst and bar food. Whether you are a vegetarian who has just moved to Milwaukee, have just decided to become vegetarian, or will be dining with a vegetarian friend or family member, it can sometimes be a challenge to find a restaurant that suits your needs. “When I first became a vegetarian two years ago, I wasn't quite sure where to go for food. But once I found the restaurants that do offer vegetarian items, I realized that their food was way better than many of the places I was eating at before,” says Mark Thiel, a UWM alumnus who recently joined the ranks of Milwaukee vegetarians. While there are only three completely vegetarian restaurants in Milwaukee, numerous other establishments cater quite nicely to the vegetarian. These include some well-known Milwaukee vegetarian favorites and everything else from corner coffee shops to Chinese takeout to deep-fried vegan bar food to places with cloth napkins. Lynn Sbonik, co-owner of Milwaukee vegetarian landmark Beans and Barley, says she thinks vegetarianism is becoming more popular and socially acceptable. “I think there probably are more restaurants that are serving vegetarian food. I think that has increased as well,” Sbonik says. Nearly every restaurant in the city has at least one vegetarian option on the menu these days. But who really wants to settle for another crummy veggie burger or another grilled cheese sandwich? If you look in the right places, there are plenty of restaurants in Milwaukee that offer creative, delicious, and most importantly bountiful vegetarian options. All-Vegetarian The aforementioned three meat-free restaurants in Milwaukee are nearly as varied as three restaurants can be. Bombay Sweets is an Indian take-out restaurant on the south side of the city. The food here is widely acclaimed by vegetarians throughout the area for its quality, authenticity, and price. The general consensus is that what the restaurant lacks in atmosphere it makes up for in value—excellent authentic Indian food, like curries, dosai, and samosas, for very low prices. “This restaurant is awesome. The family that owns it always works the counter and they are extremely kind. The food is amazing and you almost feel as if you are getting one over on them for the amount they charge. It's cheaper than McDonald's for goodness sake!” says yelp.com reviewer Jessica O. Riverwest Co-Op is a corner grocery store tucked away in Riverwest. It features a small, all-vegetarian café with many vegan options and a bicycle delivery service. The food is kind of your standard, quick and casual “American” fare—sandwiches, soups, and breakfast. There is extremely limited seating within the café, which can make for a cozy meal and longer wait during a weekend brunch or busy lunch hour. “My favorite vegetarian restaurant is Riverwest Co-Op. I usually don’t dine in because the dining room is so small, but I love getting take-out. The bike delivery service is pretty cool too,” Krista Wichman, Milwaukee vegetarian and UWM graduate school student, says. Café Manna is a fairly new restaurant in Brookfield that rounds out our list of all-vegetarian eateries in Milwaukee. From what can be gleaned from both published and online reviews it is a more upscale vegetarian restaurant, the menu a little more gourmet and the atmosphere a little more put-together. In addition to being completely vegetarian, the menu at Café Manna is around 80 percent organic and uses as many local ingredients as possible, according to employee Matthew Kroeninger. The dishes on the menu are fairly creative, too. “We try to get a balance of the cuisines…We try to be as diverse as possible with our entrees,” Kroeninger says of the menu. The Staples There are also a few restaurants in Milwaukee that pretty much all vegetarians know about, and if you were to ask someone where you can get vegetarian food in the city they will most likely respond with one of these. Beans and Barley has been serving Milwaukee vegetarians since 1979. The restaurant has gone through a location change and post-fire rebuild since then, and is currently half market and deli and half service dining room. Beans and Barley has won several awards for its vegetarian food, including its famous vegetarian chili. The menu includes the very popular burritos, a variety of salads, a rotating soup selection, plenty of sandwiches, and several other dishes. They offer poultry and seafood for the meat-eater, but don’t expect to find any pork or red meat on the menu. The hot deli case features meat, vegetarian, and vegan dishes if you need to grab something on the go. Comet Café used to be a small East Side coffee shop with food, but since their expansion and remodeling has “grown up” to include a larger menu and a full bar. Comet caters to the carnivore and vegetarian alike, with a substantial portion of their menu able to be ordered vegetarian or vegan. Possibly the only place in the city you can find vegan meatloaf, their vegan desserts and sandwiches like the artichoke melt are not to be missed. Palomino is Comet’s sister restaurant. The western-themed bar is located in Bayview and offers greasy bar food to vegans and vegetarians. With items like Toffalo wings and tater tots, Palomino’s menu is a pretty unique find. Don’t fret if a meat-eater will be joining you at Palomino—about half the menu includes meat as well. If you are under 21, be warned: Palomino caters only to the “of-age” crowd. Roots is a farmer- and chef-owned restaurant located on Brewer’s Hill. Its dining room and patio offer great views of the city. The restaurant is more upscale than any mentioned here previously (think: hot date or dinner with Prince Fielder). Roots boasts the use of fresh ingredients, many grown locally or from their farm, and a changing menu selection. While not totally vegetarian, the vegetarian dishes Roots does offer are balanced, creative, and adventurous. If you can’t swing a $30.00 entrée or are just in the mood for a more casual dining experience, the Roots Cellar offers salads and sandwiches (as well as the entrées served upstairs) in a more relaxed setting with a full bar. The Coffee Shops and Other Quick Bites Vegetarians need quick, casual lunches and food on the go just as much as everyone else! Luckily, Milwaukee’s coffee shops and vegetarian-friendly markets are perfect places to find these. Coffee shops like Bremen Café and Fuel in Riverwest, Hi-Fi, Sven’s, and Anodyne in Bayview, and Alterra (locations throughout the city) are great places to go for a latte and a fast sandwich. All of these places offer ample vegetarian options. Whole Foods, Outpost, and Beans and Barley each have a deli nestled into their market if you need to grab something fast while shopping or on your lunch break. Vegetarian By Cuisine Some cuisines tend to be quite a bit more vegetarian-friendly than others. If you are familiar with these cuisines and are able to identify restaurants that serve them you should be able to find somewhere new to dine out without meat. Chinese food tends to be quite vegetarian-friendly, and most restaurants offer a variety of meats that any dish can be made with. Luckily for vegetarians, most of these dishes can be made with tofu or simply without meat. And because Chinese food uses very little dairy, vegans can usually easily find something to their liking as well. Thai and other Asian ethnic cuisines tend to be similarly vegetarian-friendly. India is a country with an extremely large Hindu population. Hinduism holds vegetarianism in high regard, and for this reason Indian food tends to be very vegetarian-friendly. Middle Eastern cuisines also tend to be very vegetarian-friendly. Shahrazad and Casablanca are two East Side eateries that are so vegetarian-friendly that they offer vegetarian lunch buffets. The Guides It would be exhausting for both author and reader to outline every vegetarian-friendly restaurant in the metro Milwaukee area. But finding a new restaurant to try requires nothing more than a bit of online research and an idea of what you are looking for. Frank Strakka, a 13-year vegan, knows his way around Milwaukee’s vegatarian-friendly restaurants. Two of his favorite places to eat are Casablanca and Classic Slice, a pizza place in Bayview with several vegan pizza options. “As far as what I look for when choosing a new restaurant to try, it has to have vegan food and it has to taste good. Organic would be nice, or a really hot waitress,” Strakka says. These criteria, with the exception of the attractiveness of the servers, can all be researched thoroughly online if you know where to look. A simple Google search for “vegetarian restaurants in Milwaukee” will produce approximately 33 pages of results. For most people, this is a lot of information to weed through! Many of these results are various “guide sites” that compile listings and user reviews of restaurants. Beware! Not all of these guide sites are terribly helpful. Insiderpages.com – Steer clear of this website if you are looking for a new place to eat. A search for “vegetarian restaurants” produced 192 results, but many were not very vegetarian-friendly, and many were not even restaurants. Some of the results on the first page included Saz’s Catering and Ray’s Butcher Shoppe. Yellowpages.com – The yellow pages may have been the pre-internet way to find a business, but its internet counterpart proves to be of little help in finding a vegetarian restaurant. Search results here were extremely limited and included places outside of Milwaukee. Yellowpages.wisn.com – Search results on the WISN.com yellow pages included no restaurants in Milwaukee, despite that being one of the search criteria. If you want to find a vegetarian restaurant in Illinois, or maybe Madison or Michigan, this site may be able to help you. Vegetarian-restaurants.net – If you can look at this website long enough to conduct a search you are probably ahead of the game. However, there is no need to go that far. While there is an interesting list of fairly descriptive results, its listings are few and definitely out of date. Citysearch.com – This website offers a decent listing of vegetarian-friendly restaurants, but weeding through the results proves difficult. Very few of the listings provide much description beyond address, phone number, and a few user reviews. Some of the listings are not so vegetarian-friendly. Happycow.net – The cute purple and green cow serving as mascot for this website makes the visit enjoyable. However, some of its listings are inaccurate or out of date. This site could definitely afford a few more listings, but they provide more information in their listings than some other sites. Vegguide.org – This website is pretty useful for finding a new place to try out. While they are missing a few important listings, they provide images, hours, and a fairly decent description of the restaurants listed. It only takes two or three dishes to achieve the designation of vegetarian-friendly or vegan-friendly, irritatingly enough. Thorough examination of the particular description and reviews usually make this evident. Yelp.com – Yelp.com takes the cake for finding a new vegetarian-friendly restaurant. The website features an extremely comprehensive listing of restaurants, and each listing is neatly set up with a map, images (if any), location, phone number, hours, website (if any), pertinent restaurant information, and best of all: many well-written and honest user reviews. This website can be used to find nearly any kind of new business. Fri, 31 Oct 2008 21:47:00 CST http://www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=19643&mname=Article http://www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=19643&mname=Article September 3, 2008 As with most phenomena in life, the Harley-Davidson Fest can be adequately summed up by a quote from TV’s The Simpsons. One episode in particular features a Hollywood film crew that comes to town and the mayor says in an effort to facilitate production: “We’ll blow up our dams, destroy forests, anything! If there’s a species of animal that’s causing problems nosing around your camera, we’ll have it wiped out!” And in a similar haphazard fashion, Harley riders have rolled into Milwaukee to the apparent laxity of traffic laws and sound violations; for everything has been modified to ease their arrival. Police officers look the other way as bikers slow traffic to a crawl, zip in between cars illegally, stop in the middle of streets, and obliterate ear drums with unnecessary revs of their engines. But why should cops do anything? Milwaukee could use this influx of consumerism. And God forbid we offend all of these out-of-town customers. This is not to say that Harley executives slide cash to cops on the beat, but it wouldn’t be surprising. Nor would it be surprising if they paid off the local press, making sure it reports on positive events and lets the fistfight and ghastly accident stories fall by the wayside. But whether money comes from the motorcycle bigwigs or not, what this 105th anniversary amounts to is a four-day advertisement compliments of the mass media. A “Harley Riders Come Today” headline may as well read “Cha-Ching for Local Businesses”. Although, to be fair, business owners don’t need a newspaper story to remind them of the opportunities here; they’ve long since been in the know. Signs reading ‘Welcome Harley Riders’ pepper the Milwaukee landscape, each occupying a window of the sort of venue our visitors like to frequent: bars, pubs, saloons, speakeasies, liquor stores, and… paving companies? Gee, how shameless of the guys at Poblocki Paving to try to cash in too. But what do I know? Perhaps Harley riders in from say, Indiana, may actually need 500 pounds of asphalt during their stay this weekend. Maybe they can carry it home in the compartment below the crotch seat. Okay, some will argue that their arrival is “good for the city”. Fine. But at the end of the weekend it’s still not “good for my ears”. I’ve seen numerous occasions in which disrespectful bikers crank their engines near crowds of innocent bystanders. The mechanical growl that ensues is not only painful—literally painful—but serves no ultimate purpose. Why do they do this? If you’re going to invade the city like a leathery virus the least you can do is be courteous. Others will say that the fest benefits not only the city, but also the Harley-Davidson Corporation itself. The company provides jobs for crying out loud, and it’s holding the very structure of Milwaukee in place. Yeah, Harley provides jobs, but the corporation also provides a lot of irritating, oft superfluous machines too. I guess they have to keep people on the payroll to find new ways of making the motors louder, right? Sounds good to me. Or actually it doesn’t, because now I’m deaf. And furthermore, while we exalt both Harley-Davidson and their clientele, we’re simultaneously worshipping vehicles that pollute ten times as much as the average car or SUV. That’s insane. According to an LA Times article by Susan Carpenter, catalytic converters offset some pollutants from automobiles, but they are not built into motorcycles because of their cumbersome size and weight. As a result, these wondrous machines kick out huge amounts of nitrogen oxide that lay waste to the ozone layer. With blown eardrums and Mother Nature aside, I feel that a more serious issue needs to be pressed. No one seems to be commenting on the fact that drinking beer and riding motorcycles are becoming synonymous in the heart of the city. As aforementioned, a majority of welcome signs are placed in bars, and I doubt bikers are going there for a wild game of darts. What they’re going to do is get liquored up, hop on their hog, and blaze through downtown. But who’s really to blame here? Who is the enabler? The environment these bikers ride into is basically encouraging this dangerous behavior. Sloshed rallies are held Miller Park; parties are thrown on streets notorious for their bar scene, particularly on Brady and North. When they get tanked up, who can they call for a lift? All there friends are out of town. Sometimes companies do cross promotions. Volkswagen and Apple, for example, installed Ipod ports right into the automobiles. Maybe Harley and Miller can one day team up, perhaps for the 110th celebration, and market the HD-M Jaws of Life. It not only rips people out of mangled wrecks, but is the first to boast a bottle opener! But before that ridiculous item is up for sale, let’s, as a city, show a little more common sense five years from now. Instead of inviting legions of motorcycle jockeys into the likewise legions of Milwaukee pubs, why not direct them to spots a bit more constructive? Let’s see welcome signs at homeless shelters, for example, so when they come to town they can volunteer and benefit the city instead of speeding recklessly through it. Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:55:00 CST http://www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=17933&mname=Article http://www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=17933&mname=Article By Lawrence Nichols May 2, 2008 The original topic for this column was supposed to be the new Johnny Depp film Public Enemies. My sources told me that a crucial scene was being shot at a bank right in Milwaukee’s 3rd Ward. This would’ve been an exciting opportunity to lurk around a movie set for awhile, but it so happened that the shooting day was pushed beyond my deadline. No worries, though, because in the spirit of Hollywood, filmdom, and the blockbuster, I decided to cover a different upcoming movie instead. No, it wasn’t filmed in our hometown, but its release is important to analyze for several reasons. What flick am I talking about? Here’s a hint: its last installment was released in theaters 19 years ago. I can’t state strongly enough that Indiana Jones was my childhood hero. I went as him every Halloween throughout grade school, save the one year my brother got me to go as the Fonz—even though I didn’t know who that was. But that’s beside the point; the Indiana Jones trilogy commanded much of my attention while growing up, and I remember numerous occasions when I told adults that archaeology would be my future career. So now, as a cynical film fan in his early 20s, you can understand that I’d initially be excited about Indy’s return to the big screen. Well, that was before the details began to trickle out of Spielberg and professional nerdbomber George Lucas. The title for the fourth Indy film was leaked at the end of this past January. I couldn’t believe it—was I really going to relive all of those great and profound moments in cinematic history? Indiana pointing a rocket launcher at the Ark of the Covenant; the charming chemistry between Indy and Sean Connery, his intellectual father; the 500-year-old Templar Knight in that cave. This was amazing! A return to exciting and meaningful movies! But then, quite possibly the lamest sounding location ever was somehow crammed into the title. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull just hit me in the face. Are you serious? This was the best they could do after deliberating and tweaking and rewriting the script for 20 years? Wow. Contemporary Hollywood culture has played us for chumps once again. ‘Alright’, I told myself after the initial blow, ‘maybe it won’t be that bad.’ After all, Spielberg was directing it and he’s a world-renowned genius. So I waited to make my decision until after seeing some footage; I had to be fair to old Indiana. And shortly after the announcement of the title, the first minute-long teasers sprouted up on the internet. I ventured onto imdb.com and checked it out, only to see a sprawling and climactic escape sequence wherein a giant, ancient stone apparatus comes to life at spells doom for Indiana. I understand more than anyone that Indiana Jones faced scores of traps in the first three movies, but they weren’t entirely manufactured via computer generated effects. It pretty much revealed who was leading the show—Lucas and his penchant for CGI. And as I looked at the unrealistic scene, I couldn’t help but think that it emulated every other supernatural epic that’s been coming out in the last few years—your King Kong remake, your Pirates of the Caribbean series, your Mummy sequels. Poison arrows shooting out of a temple wall are one thing, a giant sentient stone structure is but another. With that said, I no longer trusted Spielberg after watching that trailer, because fancy special effects should never be the redeeming quality of a director. Spielberg needs to show a story, not employ the bulk of the Mac laptops at Skywalker Ranch. Before I could even escape into the original trilogy, it turned out that capitalism was also out to ruin Indiana Jones for me. Well, I guess there’s no surprise there, but it hurt even more since Indy was at one time a sacrosanct figure. Now, however, the utter duplicity of marketing and synergy have reduced my childhood hero to a reproducible face on a billion bags of Peanut M&Ms. Snickers bars and Dr. Pepper have claimed him too, featuring his tough mug on wrappers in order to cover up the preservative-ridden snacks the Nazi fighting professor now endorses. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, though, if one recalls the orgiastic marketing blitz for Star Wars that occurred during the late ‘90s. Everything from Pepsi to MTV to action figures to video games to eternity was drowning in Star Wars tie-ins. I guess I have George Lucas to thank yet again. But what does it all mean? Did they decide to make a fourth film after 20 years because they really cared about the story and the character… or did they make it simply because the name is incredibly marketable? I’m leading towards the second reason, but with a title like Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I can’t be too sure. Fri, 02 May 2008 15:03:00 CST http://www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=17873&mname=Article http://www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=17873&mname=Article By Lawrence Nichols lnichols@uwm.edu April 20, 2008 The average American adult is exposed to 3000 advertisements a day. And if my arithmetic on this napkin is correct, then we are subjected to nearly 1.1 million ads each year. This barrage of business pervades every facet of life, and it’s become so entrenched in our society that most people don’t even notice the invasion. Television and commercials are basically synonyms of each other, and ads are even run on the cable channels that people have to pay for. The radio is no respite either. And as the internet drowns in pop-ups, the last remaining surfaces of public space are equally blanketed with sales announcements, great deals, logos, and company mascots. Ads are everywhere! We don’t ask for them, but the marketing furnaces of major and local companies keep jamming them en masse into our eyeballs. I understand that it’s a free speech issue, but I truly feel that ads corrode my very soul and being. Maybe I just need to move to Vermont—the state that has already taken a step in the right direction. While driving on its highways, I would pleasantly notice that there is a complete dearth of billboards along the way. See, the state government has made it unlawful to put up such eyesores, and have instead permitted innocent motorists to gaze at the countryside instead of celebrity endorsements and corporate slogans. And I wish that Wisconsin would emulate the Green Mountain State, because the conditions here allowed WISN to cross the line of decency with its latest ad. Whereas an advertisement in the Shepherd Express or on the side of a bus is like talking in a normal voice, a billboard is the equivalent of barking through a megaphone. These behemoths reach thousands upon thousands of drivers and pedestrians each day, proclaiming an empty, non-consequential message about what ice cream you should buy, why your lady needs diamonds, and what car you should already be behind the wheel of. Okay, so it’s annoying to pass through forests of these things as it is. But with products aside, a new devious and manipulative message has arisen, which, in our city’s case, could be far worse. A few weeks ago, before the April 1 spring election, I noticed a new billboard across from the Milwaukee Courthouse on I-43. Instead of simply advertising one of its conservative commentators like Mark Belling, Sean Hannity or Rush, the WISN sign offered one short requirement: “Before you vote, check with us.” My immediate thought was, “Wow, this makes it seem like WISN is a fair, illuminating radio station for everyone, and not a misguided, hypocritical, petty network that plays to juvenile values and insecurities.” But then I thought, “Well, of course they can say that, but the impetus behind doing so is questionable.” The message is meant to capture undecided voters, so that when they tune in, they can be unknowingly force fed one side of the story. These commentators aren’t going to give equal weight to leftist ideology, yet the billboard is devised as if the oncoming drivers are going to hear honest, unbiased discourse. But flip to WISN-AM (1130), and you’ll get the get the latest Limbaugh blustering about how Liberalism is both foolish and cowardly. To make the billboard more accurate, it’d have to say: “Before you vote, check with us, and we’ll tell you to vote for the most right-wing candidate.” Another issue needs to be addressed as well, and it regards the fact that the network shamelessly feels as though its listeners, or potential listeners, are incapable of making decisions for themselves. WISN assumes the parent role here, takes the hand of the latest Limbaugh acolyte, and guides them safely across the street to the conservative side. “We do the thinking for you,” the pundits say, “so just take that burden off and go to the polls.” The network is just reaching for votes of those they assume are ignorant. The billboard then, becomes the sentinel sage above a flock of “sheeple”. Of course, they’re allowed to post these messages, but I feel that it’s irresponsible and insulting to do so. I guess I wouldn’t mind if billboards were just honest, you know? Like if they stated the true machinations behind their creation. For instance, the lit, LED billboards that boast the pictures of soldiers in Iraq, with the web address plug beneath them that reads: operationneverforget.org. Also on the ad is the suggestion: Support our Troops, but shouldn’t it really say: Support our Troops, Because Our Ownership Society Can Only Exist With the Wealthy and the Defense Industry Continuing a Never-ending War so the Rest of the Population Sacrifices and is Kept on the Brink of Starvation? Until this happens though, I’m saving money to move to Vermont. Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:33:00 CST http://www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=17839&mname=Article http://www.frontpagemilwaukee.com/site/Viewer.aspx?iid=17839&mname=Article