The A.V. Club - Daily

Music: Visual Audio: Logic & Raze team up with Funny Or Die for “Ice Cold Bowling Trick Shots”

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:20:00 -0600

Bowling and hip-hop have long been associated with each other; they’re practically like peanut butter and jelly, Sonny and Cher, or Jake and The Fatman. So it’s no surprise that a new video from Funny Or Die should marry the incredible bowling trick shots of Milwaukee’s Jack and Nick Packard with the bombastic hip-hop sounds of Milwaukee’s Logic & Raze. Spray down your rental shoes and hold on tight, ’cause this shit gets crazy. The Packards are no strangers to tossing rocks for Funny Or Die—like their other bowling videos for the site, “Ice Cold Bowling ...

Film: Local Newswire: UW-Milwaukee film students court new media with Mediocracy

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Five guys, all wearing glasses, judge Nikolaus Aldrich’s DVD collection. “I haven’t seen the second one yet,” says Mike Schmidt, holding up the third Paranormal Activity movie. “I got them all for $20!” says Aldrich. It’s a Monday night. The young twentysomethings are talking preferred editing software and aspect ratios. They seem captivated and charmed by the art and process of filmmaking. Even after film classes at UWM, documenting a student government meeting, and putting together a rough cut of a short video, the group continues to talk shop. Tonight, the discussion is all about who will ...

City Life: Local Newswire: Oh, Soref’s Carpet City is closed, too

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:00:00 -0600

In an already-depressing day due to news of the Times and Rosebud theaters closing up shop, the Journal Sentinel is reporting that Soref’s Carpet City, of all places, is also kaput. The paper says that the doors to the iconic Milwaukee store are currently locked, and that a sign in the window is offering the remaining stock at a “deep discount” by appointment only. The store’s owner was unavailable for comment. And with that, another piece of Milwaukee history—Soref’s was in business for over four decades—bites the dust. Oh, well. We’ll alway have the ...

Music: Now Streaming: Listen to the new single from Surgeons In Heat, “Never Noticed”

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:00:00 -0600

When we last heard from Milwaukee/Madison outfit Surgeons In Heat, the band was unveiling a Soul Train-tastic music video and getting props from NPR’s World Café. More recently, the group has been busy prepping a follow-up to its terrific 2011 self-titled EP. The upcoming Midnight At Bellevue EP isn’t expected to drop until March 27 according to the group’s Bandcamp page, though the band has done us all a solid and released an early single, “Never Noticed.” The song is certainly in the Surgeons’ wheelhouse—this is funky shit, people—but it’s immediately obvious ...

Film: Great Job, Internet!: Pain do hurt: Watch every Road House face punch in 45 seconds

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:00:00 -0600

There isn’t much to say about the Swayze-crazy classic Road House that hasn’t been said before. That’s why a new video featuring nothing but the film’s brutal face-punching action seems especially apt—who needs mindless, philosophical yammering when there are plenty of faces to be punched? And consider Road House’s esteemed cast, which includes Patrick Swayze, Sam Elliott, and Ben Gazzara. Isn’t it best to simply let a group like that go nuts and punch/get punched? The video comes courtesy of Milwaukee’s Red Letter Media, best known for its epic-length takedowns of ...

Film: Local Newswire: Times and Rosebud theaters to permanently close this Sunday

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:55:00 -0600

The Journal Sentinel is reporting that the Times and Rosebud theaters—two of Milwaukee’s best destinations for new and classic films—will permanently close their doors at the end of the month. (JS’ Duane Dudek pins the exact date down as Sunday, Feb. 26.) Owner David Glazer cites falling property values as the main culprit, as well as an unsteady lending environment. The unnamed lender for the Times and Rosebud will take back the properties at the end of the month. This is certainly sad news, especially for Milwaukee’s many old-school movie buffs. The Times in particular has ...

Music: Visual Audio: Watch The Promise Ring perform three songs on FM 102/1 Milwaukee

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0600

Back in the halcyon days before a certain three-letter word became a four-letter word, Milwaukee’s The Promise Ring reigned supreme over the burgeoning Midwest emo scene. Led by former Cap’n Jazz guitarist Davey Von Bohlen, the group exemplified the genre’s melodic, heart-on-sleeve songwriting, and produced two classic albums: 1996’s 30° Everywhere and 1997’s Nothing Feels Good. TPR took a decidedly poppier route with 1999’s Very Emergency, but by the time 2002’s underrated Wood/water came around, the band was near its end. Reunion rumors circulated for years (during which time Von Bohlen ...

Film: Local Newswire: Special Entertainment heads to L.A., celebrates 5 years of “What What (In The Butt)”

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0600

A hot pink blimp appeared across Los Angeles landmarks on Feb. 8 like a Bat Signal of absurdist art. Milwaukee filmmakers Andrew Swant and Bobby Ciraldo—the two minds behind Special Entertainment—projected the image from a cargo van onto L.A. buildings, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Grauman's Chinese Theater, and the Scientology center. “It seemed immediately funny in a prankster-ish way,” says Ciraldo. A single word was printed on the bubblegum-colored aircraft, in the style of a Goodyear blimp ad: “What.” It made for a less foreboding omen than the Dark ...

City Life: Always Be (Missing) Connections: Greasy spoons

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:00:00 -0600

Each week, we pick four thematically linked Missed Connections from the weekend to compete in a battle of opinion. First prize is a date with the missed connection. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired. (We have no power to actually award any of these prizes. Leave your ranking in the comments.) The right kind of food can be a powerful aphrodisiac (think chocolate and strawberries), while the wrong kind of food can be a mood- and sex-drive-killer (think taco dip and Funyuns). Dining out is usually an easy way to avoid the ...

City Life: News Net: This Week(end) In Bon Iver: Justin Timberlake is Justin Vernon

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:30:00 -0600

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 over the weekend. Here are some things to think about as the workweek begins. • It was only a few weeks ago that the then-Grammy-less Bon Iver performed on the then-Karmin-less Saturday Night Live. But that didn’t stop frontman Justin Vernon from dropping by the hallowed halls of 30 Rock again this past weekend for a quick cameo, a few laughs, and a chance to kick ...

City Life: Local Newswire: R.I.P. Frank “Pepperoni Cannoli” Pecoraro

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:30:00 -0600

Milwaukee lost an indelible character last Thursday, as multiple sources reported that Frank “Pepperoni Cannoli Guy” Pecoraro had died at age 76. Pecoraro was a familiar face on Milwaukee’s East Side, hawking pepperoni and cannoli to late-night bar dwellers eager for a quick snack. Sometimes friendly and warm, sometimes gruff and cantankerous, Pecoraro—forever toting around his cannoli-filled cooler—was a Milwaukee institution. Funeral services will be held Tuesday, Feb. 21 at St. Rita’s Church (1601 N. Cass St.) at 4 p.m. Along with self-professed “dirty old man” Bob Watt, Pecoraro is the second iconic Milwaukeean to ...

Sports: Recap: WWE Elimination Chamber at the Bradley Center

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:10:00 -0600

For the self-respecting wrestling—er, “sports entertainment”—fan, watching one of WWE’s monthly pay-per-view events can be trying. The company has spent more than a decade working to recapture the magic of the late-’90s Attitude Era, which was notable for its “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson-led mainstream crossover personalities, boundary-pushing story lines, and occasionally excellent wrestling. These days, the action is still occasionally excellent, but—with a few exceptions—the personalities and story lines aren’t exactly “Who shot J.R.?” Hell, they’re barely “Who ran over Stone Cold?” However, one aspect of ...

Music: Interview: Young The Giant’s Sameer Gadhia

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Many music fans think of Young The Giant as an overnight sensation: A few months after its debut album hit stores, the band scored a massive radio hit with “My Body.” That impression couldn’t be further from the truth: While a recent name change—the act originally called itself The Jakes—clouds some of its history, the band’s been in the trenches in one form or another since 2004, when its members were high school students. The A.V. Club chatted with frontman Sameer Gadhia ahead of the band’s show Tuesday, Feb. 21 at The Rave, to ...

Promotion: Contest: Win tickets to see Act Of Valor early and for free

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:00:00 -0600

Say what you will about Saving Private Ryan, but when it comes to military epics, it actually doesn’t get much realer than this. Act Of Valor, an “authentic action film” starring real-life, active Navy SEALs, won’t reach theaters nationwide until Feb. 24—but readers of The A.V. Club can win passes to a special advance screening on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 7 p.m. at the Marcus Majestic. With a plot woven from compelling true stories unearthed in interviews with real Navy SEALs, Act Of Valor follows Bandito Platoon, a core group of SEALs, as it is ...

City Life: News Net: Sheriff Clarke and his cowboy hat can’t be bothered with presidential security

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:20:00 -0600

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. • As you may have heard, President Barack Obama was in town Wednesday afternoon. Obama spoke at Milwaukee-based Master Lock, praising the company’s practice of “in-sourcing” jobs back to the city from foreign countries. It was a stirring speech, and left many in attendance energized and feeling positive about the future of our city. But of course, with Milwaukee being Milwaukee, a simple ...

Promotion: Contest: Win tickets to see Gone early and for free

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0600

Gone, another in a recent crop of one-word-title thrillers, stars Amanda Seyfried as Jill Parish, who comes home from work to discover that her sister Molly has been abducted. While no one else believes her, Jill is pretty sure she remembers being left for dead in a hole of human remains by the same kidnapper a year earlier. Because, why would someone make that up? The cops don’t buy it, so she sets out on her own to save her sister before it’s too late. Those who want to see Gone might as well do so early and ...

Film: Just Announced: Beer And A Movie: Pee-wee’s Big Adventure at Turner Hall

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:00:00 -0600

Defined by the cartoonish personality of Paul Reubens’ character, the funhouse music of Danny Elfman, and the visual design of cartoonist Paul Chadwick, the 1985 comedy Pee-wee’s Big Adventure wasn’t immediately linked with the sensibility of its young director, Tim Burton. It wasn’t until Burton’s subsequent films like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands that Pee-wee’s Big Adventure began to fit into Burton’s career-long devotion to surreal, cutesy outsiderdom. Pee-wee is among Burton’s best: a feather-light road picture with Reubens touring a gently grotesque America in search of his stolen bicycle. The film will screen ...

Music: Just Announced: Iron Maiden brings Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son-themed tour to Marcus Amphitheater July 4

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0600

Over the past decade or so, Iron Maiden’s tendency to plan concept tours around its back catalog has certified the band’s vitality as heavy metal’s hardest-working tour act. As if ignoring the release last year’s compilation From Fear To Eternity: The Best Of 1990-2010 (a “best of” album containing choice cuts from some of the band’s worst records), Iron Maiden is heading on the road with another historically themed tour, galloping to stadiums across North America. Based on the 1988 concert movie filmed during the Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son tour, the Maiden England ...

City Life: Blog: Let’s talk about the Wisconsin Girl Scout leader who was let go because of a “satanic” website

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:30:00 -0600

Controversies come in all shapes and sizes, and can involve anything from public art to highly contentious adult day care facilities. But when some good old-fashioned satanic panic gets thrown into the mix—much like it did when two local gals went nuts on an unsuspecting online hookup last year—things can get blown out of proportion. That’s why I’m surprised a recent story about a Wisconsin Girl Scout volunteer who was let go because of her association with a supposedly “satanic” website hasn’t been getting more press. The story has all of the hallmarks of a ...

Film: Just Announced: Lebowski Fest at Cathedral Square and AMF Lanes

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 09:00:00 -0600

What began as random gatherings of über fans meeting up in Dude-like bathrobes and jellies is now a national phenomenon that has been going strong for over 10 years. Lebowski Fest, a two-night party dedicated to all things The Big Lebowski, is finally slated to make a stop in Milwaukee June 22 and 23. An outdoor screening of the Coen Brothers comedy will take place on the 22nd in Cathedral Square Park, complete with bands, White Russians, and food trucks. The next night, Lebowski fanatics can roll a few down at AMF Lanes where there’ll be trivia, costumes, bowling ...