Aching for Gentrification

The old saw quips that there are two seasons in Wisconsin: winter and construction.  Depending on which part of the state you live in, the former is debatable, but the latter incontestable.  From first thaw in April to first freeze and flake come sometime in fall, construction orange is ubiquitous and de rigueur.  But while the ties to road construction and Governor Walker are as hot and heavy as the bituminous lathered on our highways, like greased palms giving the glad hand and thumbs up thick as thieves, the kind of reconstruction project I’m talking about is the incremental changes to the very demographic topography of our state.  Today’s case in point?  The state-sanctioned discrimination and disenfranchisement of tenants — yes, people (like me) who don’t own housing but instead rent an apartment. 

 

We Are WI

Here are some clips from the full-length documentary about the rallies in Madison by the award-winning, internationally recognized filmmaker, Amie Williams (a Wisconsinite by birth who now makes her home in L.A.), who shot a lot of great footage while she was here.  She is that rare soul whose talent and craft are matched by her passion and conviction.  Thank you Amie for making us look so wonderful, but really for bringing such beautiful attention to what happened/is still happening here!

And if you have a moment, check out her website, especially the “Sample Reel”; it’s well worth it!  Plus there you can learn at long last what a “bal maiden” is!

 

Don’t Mess With Taxes

No, that’s not a dyslexic typo.  But as for lapses of logic, spelling gaffes, general bouts of stupidity, and Palin-esque aposiopeses, please read on…

The tea party (TP) “spatriots” came to town today — on yellow school buses no less — and were met overwhelmingly by a counter-protest pro-union contingent which effectively drowned out their “drown it in a bathtub” Grover Norquist message.  But rather than tell, I’ll show: