Livestream and in-person

A cautious return to live music, and more Isthmus Picks for March 18-25

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Keepers of the Water, Thursday, March 18, 6 pm: Proposals for the “Crandon mine” near the headwaters of the Wolf River in northern Wisconsin caused statewide controversy for nearly three decades, and plenty of legal proceedings, until a coalition of groups opposing the mine won a precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court victory in 2002. Despite that decision, mining remains a contentious issue due to a depressed economy in northern Wisconsin and continued exploration for mineral deposits by business interests (including drilling activities in 2020 by a subsidiary of Can-American Minerals). Water@UW hosts a screening of Keepers of the Water, a 1996 documentary produced by the Wisconsin Resources Protection Council featuring the activists who eventually helped defeat the Crandon mine proposal. The screening will be followed by a discussion by film director Al Gedicks, Menominee community organizer Anahkwet, and UW doctoral candidate Justyn Huckleberry. Register here for the Zoom link.

Paul Matushek, Thursday, March 18, 7:30 pm: Guitarist and songwriter Paul Matushek has spent every Thursday since March 19, 2020, livestreaming a concert from his basement. (That Thursday, of course, being the first after we were all asked to stay home if at all possible.) This Thursday — 596 no-repeat songs later, in fact — Matushek takes the show on the road for a concert from the stage of the Barrymore Theatre, with the help of Lucid Streams. What will be song 600? Stream the concert on Facebook or YouTube to find out. Matushek, who is also the People Brothers Band lead guitarist, will continue his Thursday concerts from the basement on March 25.

Textiles From Home: Local Crafts, Global Conversations, through March 20: Anyone interested in the fiber arts should explore this multi-day conference from the Center for Design and Material Culture at the UW-Madison School of Human Ecology. Presentations focus on connections between textile making, domestic space, and local environments, historically and now, and include sessions on such of-the-moment crazes as artful mending, embroidery, women in fiber mills, and Scottish wool. The keynote is from the extraordinary quilt portrait artist Bisa Butler (pictured), March 18 at 4 pm. Find the remaining events and sign-ups here.

Bach Around the Clock, through March 26: This annual celebration of the March 21 birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach has traditionally been a day-long event featuring regional players performing the composer's works. For this virtual edition, Bach Around the Clock expands to a 10-day schedule featuring performances submitted by local performers, with new music posted at 8 am daily. Evening programs featuring special guests (7 pm) include Livingstone College assistant professor and pianist Lawrence Quinett, Kreutzer String Quartet violist Clifton Harrison, and Madison Bach Musicians founder Trevor Stephenson. A keynote lecture, “The Bridge To and Through Bach,” will be given by Wisconsin Public Radio host Jonathan Overby (7 pm, March 18). Find the streaming content at bachclock.com; following its premiere, all content will remain available for the length of the festival.

Two Presidencies, Two Weeks, One Place: Trump and Biden on the National Mall, Friday, March 19, noon: This UW Center for the Humanities Friday Lunch talk takes a deeper look at the recent transition from the Trump administration to the Biden presidency, with special attention given to “reading” the rhetoric, images and actions of both Trump and Biden supporters. Reading such signs is the specialty of presenter Allison M. Prasch, assistant professor of rhetoric, politics and culture in the Department of Communication Arts at UW-Madison. No matter what you think you know about last Jan. 6 and its aftermath, this discussion is sure to deepen your understanding. Register here.

Cafe CODA reopening, Friday, March 19, 5 pm; Saturday, March 20, 7 & 9 pm: Willy Street music venue Cafe CODA, home of adventurous jazz and varied arts and cultural programs, is reopening its space to the public on Friday with a new twist: Morning Muse. The Cafe will now offer breakfast beverages and food from 7 am-2 pm daily (except Sunday), accompanied by a mix of recorded and live music. Evening shows will take place in a hybrid format: limited in-person attendance with COVID precautions in effect (plus a new pizza and tapas menu), as well as a continuation of the venue's livestreaming initiative. It kicks off with free happy hour music by the JB3s on Friday from 5-8 pm. On Saturday Cool School resumes its music classes for grade schoolers (10 am) and middle school ages and up (11 am); the evening brings ticketed shows by the Hanah Jon Taylor Artet with Kirk Brown (7 and 9 pm). Watch cafecoda.club for more information and future shows.

The Earthlings album release, Saturday, March 20, 3:20 pm: Madison rockers The Earthlings have built an intriguing sound of their own during the last decade, folding in psychedelia, electronica, folk textures and seemingly any other musical inspiration that catches their fancy. New music from the band has been emerging as singles for some months, and the collective has prepared something special to debut the complete album Peace & Anarchy: A complete set of animated lyric videos for its 10 songs. The premiere event will also feature a Q&A session and merch giveaways. Find the livestream on YouTube; for a sampling, check out the video for “My Girl.”

Flight of Lights, March 20-April 4: Who says Christmas has the monopoly on light displays? The Dane County Regional Airport stepped into the entertainment void last year with its first version of Flight of Lights, a drive-through light display at the airport, which had a) plenty of space and (at the time) b) little traffic. This year's displays honor first responders and front-line health care workers, take you on an imaginary tropical vacay, cheer on Wisconsin sports teams, cheer on spring (!), and pay homage to, of course, the wonders of flight. Free; stay in your car; and north-siders: if you are thinking of taking your favorite Darwin Road shortcut into the airport, don't. Entry is from International Lane only. Flight of Lights is a collaboration from Dane County Regional Airport, Dane County, Dane County Parks, Traditions Specialty Lighting, Affirm Agency and Holiday Fantasy in Lights. More at flightoflights.com.

Youth Art Celebration, Sunday, March 21, 2 pm: “What is family and what does it mean to you?” LunART asked that question of artists in grades 2-12, and the result is a new virtual exhibition. All 53 works will premiere during a livestream event, also featuring music by Girls Rock Camp Madison participants. Find the livestream at lunartfestival.org, where a gallery will remain through the year.

Madison's Every Place Has a Story Walking Tour, ongoing: What once happened in this spot, militarily speaking? If you don't know, there's an app for that. “Madison's Every Place Has a Story Walking Tour,” a self-guided, interactive tour linking Wisconsin’s military history to places right here in Madison, has launched via a free mobile app. And there's plenty of time to be walking the city this spring to try out the 19 sites, including the Capitol and Camp Randall. The app enhances your site visit with historic photos, documents, and artwork from the Wisconsin Veterans Museum collections. For more info, see wisvetsmuseum.com.

Anatomy of a Good Mystery, Monday, March 22, 6:30 pm: The DeForest Area Public Library welcomes mystery writer and publisher David Benjamin for this virtual event. Benjamin shares his opinions and experience on writing mysteries, even sharing his “Recipe for a Memorable Mystery.” Suspenseful tales are “like solving a series of problems, in which language, science, geography, law, imagination and the unexpected are all jumbled together,” he writes. Register for the webinar here.

Defining Moments from COVID-19, Tuesday, March 23, noon: We may still be in the midst of the pandemic, but March 2021 brings various milestones of a year since its effects became an inescapable part of everyone's world. One of those markers was the Safer at Home order issued on March 25, 2020, by the Evers administration; follow-up pandemic-related orders since then have encountered nothing but obstructionism from the state GOP and its associates. The Thompson Center on Public Leadership and UW-Superior are sponsoring a discussion on leadership during COVID featuring Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who will share insights on what has taken place in the last year and where we are headed. Questions can be submitted in advance to egroves1@uwsuper.edu; register here for the livestream.

Dean Robbins, Wednesday, March 24, 7 pm: Madison-based writer Dean Robbins has won much acclaim for his children's picture books telling the stories of important historical figures, most recently inspired by the 1960s moon landings with books on astronaut Alan Bean and computer scientist Margaret Hamilton. (Robbins is also a longtime journalist and a former Isthmus editor.) Robbins will read from and discuss his work during this Winter Writers Reading Series webinar from Shake Rag Alley, and perhaps even give a preview of timely upcoming 2021 titles Thank You, Dr. Salk! and You Are a Star, Ruth Bader Ginsburg! Register here.

Politics and Policy: Democracy in the Digital Age, Wednesday, March 24, 7 pm: Whether or not you engage directly with social media, its effect on public discourse and the dissemination of information (and disinformation) is undeniable. UW-Madison alumna Katie Harbath has witnessed the phenomenon from the inside during a decade as a global public policy director at Facebook. She will discuss big tech and its increasingly fraught relationship to civic integrity with La Follette School of Public Affairs director Susan Webb Yackee. The talk is this year's Paul Offner Lecture; register here for the livestream.

The Necessity of Climate Equity, Thursday, March 25, 1 pm: Kim Stanley Robinson has written a number of science fiction best-sellers, often with a backdrop of ecological concerns; his newest, The Ministry for the Future, imagines a time when the direct effects of climate change become dire enough that a U.N. agency is created to protect the rights of generations to come. So it makes sense that he has done some thinking about the Paris Agreement, the international climate change treaty recently rejoined by the U.S. Robinson will discuss the agreement from the aspect of equity in this lecture from the UW Havens Wright Center and Center for the Humanities. Register here.

Hip Hop Architecture Camp, March 29-April 2, 10 am: Madison College's Michael Ford, the hip-hop architect, is hosting a virtual spring break edition of this workshop, especially for middle and high school students. Participants will use the lyrics of Nipsey Hussle and other artists as inspiration to design a neighborhood using 3D modeling and printing, with a chance to win prizes and perhaps even a paid summer internship. Space is limited for this free program; register here by March 27.  

We hope it's handy for you to find the Picks in a single weekly post. The individual Picks can still be found in the usual places online: collected here, and sprinkled throughout all the events.