This is the weekend when spring shifts into high gear. The Wisconsin Film Festival already has folks walking the streets of downtown - this year's fest started on Wednesday evening and continues through Sunday. The pride of Madison, the Dane County Farmers' Market, kicks off its season on Saturday around the Square. And, of course, the Third Annual Isthmus Green Day occupies Monona Terrace from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. It's a nice confluence of interesting and entertaining activities.
There's one other Saturday activity that will interest some. Six-year-old Madisonian Antonio Rieder has aplastic anemia, a type of leukemia. He, his family and the group DKMS Americas would like folks willing to join a bone marrow transplant registry to stop by the Harambee Center, 2202 S. Park, and get swabbed between noon and 4 p.m. You could save the life of Antonio or some other affected person. Potential donors must be between the ages of 18 and 55. To learn more about DKMS Americas, visit their website.
For the Film Festival, we've pretty much done all we can do for you. We published the Wisconsin Film Festival Guide a month ago. We told you to hold onto it. And last week we published staff critiques of favorite films. You can check out your alternatives here should you need to.
As for Green Day, the complete festival guide has been delivered into your hands with this issue. There is actually too much going on for me to recount in this short space. That's why we printed a whole program. In it you will find the list of speakers and presenters, prominent among them being the mediagenic Chicago chef and restaurateur Rick Bayless and sustainable-living proponent Bill McKibben. You'll also find the lowdown on each of the 125 exhibitors at Green Day, at least the vast majority who had signed up by the time the program went to press.
Oh, there's lots of good stuff in the regular parts of the paper too, including a review of a Rick Bayless cookbook. And if you're into getting close to nature, check out "The Ant Man."
