The Flaming Lips set to play Summerfest, Milwaukee set to finally get some decent public art
CJ Foeckler
Since sifting through dull newspapers, hyperbolic blogs, and overflowing RSS feeds for meaningful news can be an arduous process, News Net catches and compiles both the amusing and the significant reports that were overlooked throughout the week.
• The Summerfest announcements have been coming fast and furious, thanks to a series of so-called “release parties.” But far from the Pat McCurdy and Dread Zeppelin announcements we were fearing, the acts revealed so far have been uniformly terrific. The Journal Sentinel reports that The Flaming Lips have been announced as July 9 Harley-Davidson Roadhouse headliners. Other great names include Owl City (June 30), Ben Harper (July 3), and Wiz Khalifa (July 5).
• For reasons far too mind-numbing to contemplate, Milwaukee has had a long and embarrassingly dysfunctional relationship with public art. Beginning with the infamous “Blue Shirt” controversy of the early ’00s and culminating with the Janet Zweig dust-up of 2009, even the most benign public art project seems to be the target of clueless Common Council members and blustery alderman. But the Journal Sentinel’s Mary Louise Schumacher has some good news: the Zweig project will finally be realized early this summer. According to Schumacher, the once-contested project (which noted art critic Ald. Bob Donovan openly ridiculed) will feature “mechanical flap signs common in train stations until recent years (when signs went digital). Instead of a rapid-fire flapping from ‘London’ to ‘Paris,’ though, Zweig’s kiosks will feature charming, cinematic sequences with silhouetted figures.” The signs will be installed along E. Wisconsin Ave.
• For entirely different reasons far too mind-numbing to contemplate, “steampunk” seems to be a big thing these days. For those who enjoy mixing Victorian-era clothes with goofy, old-timey contraptions, a local shout-out in The Steampunk Bible should get your gears a-turning. According to Tap Milwaukee, Dr. Evermor’s Forevertron Park in Sauk County is mentioned in the book, and is called “the ultimate Steampunk art installation.”
• OnMilwaukee.com’s JC Poppe took a look at a video for “More Fire,” a track from SPEAK Easy’s latest album, So To Speak.
• BizTimes.com has some more info on the six UWM filmmakers whose work is headed to the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.
