Revisit the grassroots of blues, folk and fingerstyle guitar this April at UW-Milwaukee’s Inova Gallery with the exhibition “The Avant Garde Coffeehouse Project.” In the 1960s, on the cusp of the counterculture, the Avant

    I see over 100 shows per year. They all tend to blend together. So whenever there's something that looks and feels significantly different from the rest of it, I tend to be really happy with it just because it's something different. And so Fly Steffens' staging of Gregory S. Moss' Punkplay gets a huge pass for me on a lot of its flaws simply by having the courage to do something that doesn...

  The theatre season picks up its rhythm this week with three significant openings in Milwaukee.      The first of the shows opens tonight at the Cream City Collectives on 732 East Clarke Street. World's Stage Theatre presents Fly Steffens' staging of Punkplay. . . the story of a couple of kids starting punk bad in a suburban wasteland of the '80's.    The CCC is a cozy little space that's ...

The Boulevard Theatre's cozy studio space is perfect for the intimate comedies staged by Artistic Director Mark Bucher. The theater group opens its season Sept. 19 with the Midwest premiere of Yasmina Reza's Life (x) 3. It is precisely...

    It was one of my favorite documentaries and I can't remember what it was called. And I can't seem to find mention of it anywhere online. It was a cheap '80s video documentary that followed around Corrosion of Conformity (I'm fairly certain it was COC anyway...) on a North American tour. It followed the early '80s DIY punk scene as it was happening. Like any '80s DIY punk band, they didn't h...

Sandra Strawn decorates the set in birch trees larger than loneliness. This is where UWM is staging Director Rebecca Holderness' Three Sisters. Strawn's set draws on the depth of UWM's main stage to bring a feel of immensity to the production.    This is not Chekhov's Three Sisters as originally scripted. It's an adaptation of the script by UWM student Fly Steffens. Steffens abandons some of th...

I find Charles Bukowski’s work to be extremely tedious. I am referring to his written work, of course. I can only assume his work for the US Post Office in LA was better than his written work, but it’s tough to say. Not that I don’t understand why people like his work. I just don’t find it to be all that interesting myself. His work just doesn't speak to me.   I don't like Bukowsk's wri...