Friday, October 1, 2010

Post Summer Posts: Public Service Art

This past summer in Milwaukee, a mother smothered her child while "co-sleeping" or in other words sleeping with the baby in the bed. In response, a public art exhibition served as a public announcement to raise awareness of the precarious nature of "co-sleeping" with infants.



The issue has social implications, as it is thought that those impoverished may be more inclined to "co-sleep" in the absence of the ability to afford a crib for their child. The tea party local news station Fox 6 also published a story citing that breast fed babies (or their parent) sleep different as to make "co-sleeping" safe. Individual characteristics could possibly be of consequence; apparently the mother had done this before.


Unfortunately, this tragedy has happened several times in Milwaukee recently, as in barely a year apart.


















The art display comprised of multiple mattresses set in a tripod formation was staged on the boulevards cleaving West Capital Drive starting at the intersection with Sherman Boulevard, ending at Fon Du Lac Avenue. For those not familiar with the area that is roughly seven blocks.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Summer Soltice Season Reprise: Pitbull Show Recap

Is it June, I mean July 19th already? I have gotten the most out of the summer outdoor (and indoor) concert / fest season while it has lasted. I was not going to post this a month later but I am anyway. It's worth sharing. I think I am still recovering from the damn Pitbull show, and I think his web managers are too. They have only posted one story since the show at Summerfest on June 28th. The show in Milwaukee was extra live, and I have seen a lot of shows in my day. Here's the recap...


Pitbull barks hard and bites harder


If it wasn't obvious what the Pitbull show was all about, something is very wrong with your cognition of body language. I was packed in tighter where I was standing than the cornucopia of glutes on stage that were stuffed into spandex thong singlets and sequined Carnaval showgirl costumes. I'll give you a hint, at fifteen rows back and ten feet off of the seating area, I could barely see the top of Pitbull's shaved dome. Did it really matter?

A true testament to a music artist’s pull is the turnout they draw on an off-night like Monday. Seriously, any day, any time, except Sunday morning, Mr. 305 could have shut the Brew down. 3/5 parts honeymoon for his latest album Rebelution, 1/5 part ode to his fans, 1/5 part charging the air with lust because he can, Pitbull early on broke into Triumph, a single-worthy anthem from his newest joint. Fans were feeling it, but they responded most to the hard tracks like Calle Ocho, Hotel Room Service and WATAGATAPITUSBERRY.

While people were loosing their minds jumping up to the song KRAZY, bouncing, popping, shaking, and thrusting without millimeters separating appendages and supplely cleaved muscle groups, Pitbull was saturating his marquee skinny tuxedo, the first of which was some kind of blackish-purple, which quickly liquefied into deep violet from repeated end-to-end gallops of the stage, weaving between booty dancers and hype-men alike that were donning head dresses of mohawked multi-colored feathers; some standing on hydraulic stilts giving them the Jar Jar Binks gait.

A set break ensued. At the crowd’s impatient beckoning, in the nick of time, Pitbull emerged through the stage lighting, starting this round in a perfectly good white tux before spitting classic cuts like Go Girl, Mentirosa, and neos like Shut It Down. Mr. 305 had intentions of mongering perspiration like that Axe commercial, as he gyrated dangerously parallel to the stage apron, caring little for the condition of his ankles, Achilles tendons or cumber bun.

Without warning there was a planned power outage, and Pitbull disappeared, only to come back on cue with the rest of his entertainment squad. What happened next can only be described as utterly ridiculous. Pitbull unleashes a cover of the LMFAO ditty Shots, and the secret to world peace is revealed, as every person in sight went absolutely AWOL, jumping in unison like newly freed South Africans.

The show mercifully ended, no one could even scream for another encore. Groups and solo exhibitionists all-the-way to the main promenade, with bloodthirsty gazes, refused to stop dancing: swaying their hips, hands waving and mouths screeching. Last I looked, from the back of the Harley area, the front areas of the stands(it had become an entity unto itself) still overflowing unfurled a Mexican flag, stubbornly cheered and pulsated in the glare of the illuminating flood lights. For all I know the party is still going on. Even Pitbull had to admit Milwaukee is KRAZY. Dale!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Soltice Season Part 1: Summerfest Shows - Public Enemy

Summerfest is the biggest thing going, in the world they say. The Milwaukee masses come together and do what they can to forget about the winter that past and the one that's coming.

I covered the PE concerts as a guest writer on MKE Wired.

Finally I'm back in the sphere... follow the link Public Enemy Wrap: Not out of the cross hairs yet.