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mariacallous · 11 months ago

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In early December, a rightwing Wisconsin organization called HOT Government sent out a breathless email: Mike Lindell, the pillow salesman turned election conspiracy theorist and staunch Donald Trump ally, had nominated an important Wisconsin politician for a dubious award.

The prize would go to the person who exemplifies “leadership in BEING AN OBSTACLE TO STOPPING ELECTION CRIME”, the email declared.

Lindell’s target wasn’t a Democrat, nonpartisan election official or even a moderate Republican – it was Robin Vos, the powerful Wisconsin Republican assembly speaker.

The nomination reflects a stark turn of fortunes for Vos, who has spent more than a decade using every tool at his disposal to cement Republican power in Wisconsin, touting a deeply conservative record including on voting.

Vos helped re-draw the state’s legislative maps in 2011, ensuring Republican control of the legislature ever since. The same year, he followed former Republican governor Scott Walker’s lead in creating the most restrictive voter identification law in the country and passing legislation to kneecap union power in a state where organized labor was once the core of the Democratic coalition.

Vos was elected speaker of the assembly in 2013 and has used his years in office since to shore up his party’s minoritarian lock on power in the swing state. When Republicans lost the governorship in 2018, the assembly quickly passed legislation that curbed the power of the incoming Democratic governor. And after Trump lost the state in 2020, Vos initiated an investigation into Wisconsin’s election, hiring a promoter of the “Stop the Steal” movement to lead it.

He was in all respects a loyal rightwinger. But Vos has drawn a line at embracing Trump’s false claim that he actually won Wisconsin in 2020 and refused to join colleagues who suggested overturning the 2020 election. His unwillingness to cross that line has turned him into a pariah on the far right, a target of Lindell, an enemy of Trump and a symbol of the current state of the Republican party where loyalty to Trump is the key litmus test.

Now, Vos is fighting elements of his party that rejected the results of the 2020 election and have come to view him not as a hardline conservative who has done more than almost anyone else to strengthen Republicans’ power in the state, but as a corrupt establishment hack complicit in Trump’s undoing.

With the Trump flank of the grassroots Wisconsin Republican party as strong as ever ahead of the 2024 election, Vos is scrambling to appease his hardline party detractors so he doesn’t become a casualty of the movement he helped create.

“There’s a segment of the Maga crowd who despises him, because they adamantly believe President Trump was cheated,” said a veteran Wisconsin GOP operative, who spoke anonymously given his role within pro-Trump circles. “Where he is right now is kind of emblematic of the fight going on within the Republican party – here in Wisconsin and across the nation.”

From the young Republican …

Since he was a child, Vos led a political life. In sixth grade, he tagged along with a teacher to political events, then joined the Young Republicans and worked for former Republican governor Tommy Thompson before starting college. During his first semester at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Vos ran for and won a seat on the student senate and then went about lobbying every member of the Wisconsin state legislature for reduced tuition hikes.

His eagerness was rewarded two years later, when Governor Thompson appointed Vos to be a student member of the University of Wisconsin system’s governing body. Vos surrounded himself with other young Republicans: his roommate and friend at UW-Whitewater, Reince Priebus, would go on to chair the Republican National Committee for six years before working as Donald Trump’s chief of staff in 2017.

After graduating in 1991, Vos snagged a job as a legislative aide to Bonnie Ladwig, a leader in the Wisconsin state assembly, then returned home to Burlington, in south-east Wisconsin, and won a seat on the Racine county board. When Ladwig retired a decade later in 2004, Vos won her seat.

“Jim and Bonnie Ladwig were super close to me,” Vos told the Guardian, sitting at the end of a long and formidable wooden table in his Capitol office. Vos had been taking back-to-back interviews all day but he was focused and energized. “They were like a second set of parents – and then Tommy Thompson, I talk to him almost every week – Governor Evers, annually.”

Vos advanced quickly in the assembly, learning how to manage the personalities in the Republican caucus and when to make bipartisan alliances. Perhaps emulating his slogan as a college politician – “We want your views” – Vos earned the reputation of listening carefully to his colleagues and learning their vulnerabilities and strengths.

“I really want to be a consensus builder,” said Vos, who said he believed eking out a policy win, even a small one, was worthwhile – and faulted the contemporary Republican party for adopting what he viewed as an all-or-nothing politics.

Mark Pocan, a progressive Democratic congressman in the state, who sat on the joint committee on finance with Vos, formed an unlikely friendship with the legislator. “I always found him someone that I can have [a] conversation with,” said Pocan. “He’s very effective in knowing how to work his members to get things done.”

“Everybody seems to think that Robin tells everybody in the caucus, ‘You will vote this way, you will do this, you will do that,’ and it’s not that way at all,” said Kathy Bernier, a Republican who served in the assembly for five years under Vos’s leadership. “He will be always cognizant of the vulnerable members of his caucus.”

But Vos has also gained a reputation for cracking down on uncooperative members of his caucus and withholding committee seats from disloyal members. In 2016, he withheld committee appointments from three conservative lawmakers who had previously clashed with him. Most recently, his caucus removed Janel Brandtjen, an election denier and Republican staterepresentative, from her leading role on the elections committee after she endorsed his primary opponent.

None of the seven leaders of the Republican caucus in the assembly agreed to an interview.

… To ‘the prince of darkness’

Under Vos’s leadership, the Republican-controlled legislature has flexed outsized power in Wisconsin. While statewide races are often determined by vanishingly narrow margins, Republicans can comfortably count on strong majorities in the legislature – a product of the 2011 redistricting law Vos helped craft. He currently presides over a 64-35 seat majority in the assembly, which he has leveraged to strengthen Republican power in the state.

But Vos is quick to contest the view, held by many Democrats, that his legislative style is anti-democratic – or really anything but good, effective politics. “Democrats can’t accept that because they think the only reason they’re losing is the maps – maybe it’s your strategy. Maybe it’s your campaign, maybe it’s the issues you run on.”

Also in 2011, Vos helped push through one of the most restrictive voter identification laws in the nation; independent studies have found it disproportionately impacts low-income and Black voters, but the law has nonetheless survived numerous court challenges by voting rights advocates. When Wisconsin’s government accountability board found in 2015 that the legislature had failed to provide sufficient education around the new voter ID rules, a requirement of their own law, the assembly voted to dissolve the board.

After Democrats won races for governor and attorney general in the 2018 election, Vos rushed through laws limiting the powers of both offices in the weeks before they took office. The “lame duck” legislation, among other provisions, limited the governor’s authority to appoint leaders to certain state agencies and gave the legislature the right to hire outside lawyers to intervene in lawsuits. The power grab outraged Democrats and good-government groups and illustrated the lengths to which Republicans in office would go to wrest power from their opponents. A 2022 Politico article referred to Vos as the state’s “shadow governor”.

In 2015, Vos even tried to bring about a law that would shield state lawmakers entirely from public records requests. The effort failed, but he and other members of his caucus are known to habitually delete their work emails – a practice that, while legal, makes it harder for journalists and the public to access documents.

“When it comes to sunshine in government, Robin Vos is the prince of darkness,” said Bill Lueders, a political journalist and the president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.

He has developed a reputation for obstinance towards working with Democrats in office. In early 2020, while Republican- and Democratic- led states across the country delayed primary elections amid the rapidly-spreading coronavirus, the state legislature shut down attempts by Tony Evers, the Democratic governor, to move the date of the Wisconsin primary. In a viral image, Vos, donned in head-to-toe protective gear and volunteering as a poll worker, told voters it was “incredibly safe to go out”.

A ‘rigged and stolen election’

After years of fighting Democrats, the 2020 election brought Vos into a separate and unexpectedly fierce conflict – with his own party.

A day before the scheduled certification of the presidential election in Congress, as Trump supporters piled into buses headed for Washington, DC for a rally that would devolve into the January 6 Capitol riot, 14 Wisconsin lawmakers – including 13 members of the assembly – signed a letter addressed to Mike Pence, the vice-president, urging him not to certify the election. The missive, signed by lawmakers in five swing states, accused governors and state officials of “obfuscation and intentional deception” and claimed state legislatures have the final say in certifying the election results. The chair and vice-chair of the Wisconsin assembly committee on campaigns and elections were among the signatories.

Vos did not sign. But in a press conference that day, he told reporters he took the party’s rightwing base seriously and said the widespread doubt about the election results called for a re-evaluation of the electoral process. Since then, he’s sought to walk a tightrope of appeasing his base while refusing to bow to their wildest demands. But that has proven challenging.

Trump and his allies spent months filing lawsuits to try to overturn his loss in Wisconsin and other states. When his lawsuit asking the Wisconsin supreme court to toss out thousands of votes cast in Democratic strongholds failed, he tried to pressure Vos and other Republicans in the legislature to decertify the election themselves.

“I think it is unlikely we would find enough cases of fraud to overturn the election,” Vos told reporters at the time, suggesting that the state first investigate the 2020 election.

The Republicans’ refusal to actually attempt to decertify the election angered Trump. In June 2021, as Wisconsin Republicans gathered for their annual convention, Trump issued a statement accusing Vos and other legislative party leaders of “working hard to cover up election corruption”.

Vos has responded to Trump’s attacks by alternatively rejecting his wild claims while at the same time granting political concessions to groups peddling conspiracy theories.

Under pressure from Trump, Vos in 2021 announced an investigation into the election, appointing Michael Gableman, a former Wisconsin supreme court justice who had bolstered Trump’s disproven claims of election fraud and spoken at a Wisconsin “Stop the Steal” rally shortly after the 2020 election, as special counsel. During his investigation, Gableman traveled across the US, speaking at an elections conference hosted by Lindell and viewing the discredited Cyber Ninjas election audit in Maricopa county, Arizona.

A year later, when the Wisconsin supreme court ruled that the use of ballot “dropboxes” during the 2020 election was unlawful, the former president approached Vos with another call to decertify the election. “I explained that it’s not allowed under the constitution,” Vos told WISN-TV 12 News in Milwaukee.

Trump was furious. Days later, the former president endorsed Adam Steen, Vos’s election-denying primary opponent, calling Steen a “rising patriotic candidate” and denouncing Vos.

Vos barely survived the primary, winning by less than 300 votes.

“One of my biggest regrets was hiring Gableman,” said Vos, who fired the judge days after his primary. “He was way wackier than I thought. He was disappointing. He was inept. He was way worse for the system.”

As Trump turned on Vos, cracks within the Wisconsin GOP deepened.

Vos was roundly booed at the state convention in 2022 for telling the delegates that lawmakers “have no ability to decertify the [2020] election and go back and nullify it” .That day, more than a third of the delegates voted to oust him from party leadership.

Vos will not break the law to try to win them over, but he’s still looking to win back some of their support – all while trying to keep himself and the Republican party in power amid a shakeup in the Wisconsin supreme court.

After voters elected liberal justice Janet Protasiewicz to the state’s highest court, Vos entertained the idea of impeaching her before she could rule on the constitutionality of the state’s gerrymandered maps, only dropping the cause when a panel of former justices recommended against it.

Vos has also come under pressure from election denying groups to oust Meagan Wolfe, Wisconsin’s nonpartisan election commissioner who became a target of false claims that she broke the law to hurt Trump in 2020.

“As the leader, [Vos] takes the brunt of it,” said the state senator Duey Stroebel, a Republican who served in the assembly for four years and has, like Vos, worked on restrictive voting laws during his tenure. “He’s kind of the poster boy for these things.”

Vos has echoed calls for Wolfe to step down. But he has slow-walked impeachment efforts, referring impeachment articles to an assembly committee in November, where they have languished since. A group that goes by the name “Wisconsin Elections Committee, Inc” has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on TV and newspaper ads running regularly since November pressuring Vos to impeach Wolfe.

“It’s not gonna happen,” Vos said brusquely, voicing his irritation at Trump and his allies’ unyielding focus on the 2020 election. “Donald Trump’s unhealthy obsession with 2020 is not what Americans want to hear about in 2024.”

But at this point, it seems unlikely Vos can do much more to satisfy the far right base of his party. Even if he pivots and sees Wolfe’s impeachment through, a move that could destabilize elections ahead of 2024, the right wing will likely continue to ramp up their anti-democratic demands.

“As long as Donald Trump is politically active, they will be politically active,” said Bernier, who has been vocal in pushing back against Trump’s election lies – and counts Vos as a friend. Wisconsin activists who challenge election outcomes, she said, “will continue this until Donald Trump is no more”.

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newstfionline · 1 year ago

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Tuesday, December 5, 2023

It’s the prices (NYT) The United States spends an average of about $13,000 per person every year on health care. No other country comes close to spending so much. The runner-up, Germany, spends about $7,400 per person. What do Americans get for all this spending? Our health care system does tend to produce more innovation than many others. But much of the spending does little to improve people’s lives. Despite all our spending, the U.S. has the lowest life expectancy of any high-income country, at 79.3 years. Twenty years ago, a group of researchers—Gerard Anderson, Uwe Reinhardt, Peter Hussey and Varduhi Petrosyan—published an academic paper that tried to solve the mystery. The title told the story: “It’s the prices, stupid.” The main reason that U.S. health spending is so high is not that Americans are sicker than people elsewhere or are heavier users of medical care (although both those factors play a role). The main reason is that almost every form of care in the U.S. costs more: doctor’s visits, hospital stays, drug prescriptions, surgeries and more. The American health care system maximizes the profits of health care companies at the expense of families’ budgets.

Nicaragua takes on Miss Universe (Washington Post) As Nicaragua has marched steadily toward dictatorship in recent years, its government has attacked opposition politicians, the Catholic Church, journalists and universities. Now it’s going after the beauty queens. Just when authorities appeared to have squelched all forms of dissent, a willowy 23-year-old Nicaraguan, Sheynnis Palacios, won the Miss Universe pageant on Nov. 18. People poured into the streets of the Central American country in jubilation. The government initially praised the victory—then photos emerged of Palacios taking part in mass anti-government protests in 2018, which were eventually crushed by security forces. The government struck back by attacking the country’s Miss Universe franchise, accusing the family that runs it of “conspiring against the nation.”

UK needs new plan to reverse hit to living standards, researchers say (Reuters) Britain needs a new economic strategy to reverse 15 years of falling living standards and worsening inequality, a leading think tank and an academic research centre said on Monday. British productivity growth has been half that of other rich economies, costing workers an average of 10,700 pounds ($13,577) a year in lost pay, the Resolution Foundation and the London School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Performance said.

Ukrainians in Germany Weigh Wrenching Choice: Stay or Go Home (NYT) Since fleeing Ukraine with her daughter, Iryna Khomich has made a home of a tiny space in a village of prefabricated units in southwestern Germany. A full tour of its single room takes only a few moments: an iron bunk bed and a wardrobe, shoes scattered near the door, clothes drying on radiators. On one recent afternoon, her cat, Dimka, walked in and out, while her daughter, Sofiia, 8, read a German textbook at a desk. But like other displaced Ukrainians who fled west to wait out the war against Russia, Ms. Khomich, 37, lives each day wrestling with an agonizing choice: Should she return home to Ukraine, where the fighting drags on interminably, or put down roots in Germany, effectively turning a temporary separation into something more lasting? It is a cruel dilemma faced by countless Ukrainian refugees scattered across Europe as the war nears the end of its second year, one that pits a longing for family and a sense of shared duty to rebuild their shattered country against the realization that the death and destruction are unlikely to end anytime soon. And they are debating it in places like Freiburg, a city nestled on the edge of the Black Forest close to the French border that has offered open arms, an extensive social safety net and the attractive promise of a life without war. “The heart says go back,” Ms. Khomich said. “But I want the best future for my daughter.”

Temperatures in Siberia dip to minus 50 Celsius as record snow blankets Moscow (Reuters) Temperatures in parts of Siberia plummeted to minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit) while blizzards blanketed Moscow in record snowfall and disrupted flights as winter weather swept across Russia. In the Sakha Republic, located in the northeastern part of Siberia and home to Yakutsk, one of the world’s coldest cities, temperatures fell below minus 50 C, according to the region’s weather stations. An abnormally early cold snap in Sakha pushed temperatures to even lower than minus 50 C in several areas of Sakha, a vast region just a little smaller than India.

India’s mission to clean the Ganges (Wired) The Ganges River in India supplies water to over 600 million people, and every inch of the waterway is sacred to the Hindu religion—so holy, in fact that many Hindus drink or bathe in its waters. Unfortunately, the Ganges is also one of the most polluted major rivers on our planet, playing host to tons of industrial waste, agricultural runoff, and too much human waste to quantify. India’s government has, of course, taken a variety of different measures to clean up the holy river. Between 2014 (when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came into power) and 2019, the government has provided Indians with 110 million toilets, providing sanitation services to over half a billion people nationwide. At the same time, the government has rolled out the Namami Gange (“Obeisance to the Ganges”), spending $3.77 billion to clean up the river by setting up over 170 new sanitation plants and 5,211 kilometers of sewage lines nationwide. However, experts say that all that government spending isn't making much of a dent in the Ganges’ grime. The river is still filled with islands of plastic waste, and parts of the Ganges contain over 20 times the government-recommended limits for fecal coliform and fecal streptococci bacteria.

China's military: US Navy ship 'illegally' entered territorial waters (Reuters) China's military on Monday said a U.S. Navy ship illegally entered waters adjacent to the Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed South China Sea atoll that has recently seen several maritime confrontations. "The U.S. seriously undermined regional peace and stability," a spokesperson for China's Southern Theater of Operations said in a statement, adding that the U.S. disrupted the South China Sea and violated China's sovereignty. The U.S. Navy said the USS Gabrielle Giffords, an Independence-class littoral combat ship, was conducting routine operations in international waters in the South China Sea, consistent with international law. The Second Thomas Shoal lies in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, according to an United Nations tribunal ruling in 2016. The Chinese military spokesperson said the U.S. ship was monitored and followed, and that China's "troops in the theater are on high alert at all times to resolutely defend national sovereignty".

Islamic State claims deadly blast at Catholic Mass in the Philippines (Washington Post) The Islamic State claimed responsibility Sunday for an explosion in the southern Philippines that killed at least four people, an attack President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had blamed on “foreign terrorists.” The blast targeted a Catholic Mass inside a gymnasium at Mindanao State University in the majority-Muslim city of Marawi, some 500 miles south of the capital, Manila. More than 40 others were wounded in the explosion, the Philippine Star newspaper reported. The Islamic State announced on Telegram that its members detonated the device that caused the explosion, news agencies reported. The island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, which includes a Muslim-majority autonomous region, has historically been racked by armed conflict, and insurgent groups remain active in some areas.

'Wounded child, no surviving family': The pain of Gaza’s orphans (BBC) Medics working in the Gaza Strip are using a specific phrase to describe a particular kind of war victim. “There’s an acronym that’s unique to the Gaza Strip, it’s WCNSF—wounded child, no surviving family—and it’s not used infrequently,” Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan who works with Doctors Without Borders told BBC News. The expression captures the horror of the situation for many Gazan children. Their lives change in a second—their parents, siblings and grandparents are killed, and nothing is the same ever again. Ahmed Shabat is one of those children who was described as a wounded child, with no surviving family, when he arrived injured and crying at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza. The three-year-old survived an air strike on his home in Beit Hanoun, in mid-November. But his father, mother and older brother were killed. Miraculously, at the time he had only minor injuries. Later, an uncle was found, who decided to look after them, along with his own family. He initially took them to Sheikh Radwan city but said they left after “Ahmed was hit by glass fragments” from an explosion. They then went to Nuseirat camp to stay in a UN-affiliated school. But even in their new location, they were hit again. “I ran out of the school’s door and saw Ahmed in front of me on the ground, both legs gone. He was crawling towards me, opening his arms, seeking help.” “He wanted to be many things,” his uncle said sadly. “When we went out together to attend football matches, he said he wished to become a famous football player.”

Israel, Expanding Offensive, Tells More Gazans to Evacuate (NYT) Amid a barrage of airstrikes, Israel sharply expanded its evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in preparation for an expected ground invasion in the southern part of the territory. The new orders, coming three days after the collapse of a weeklong truce, sowed confusion and fear among Gaza residents, some of whom have already been displaced at least once before. Images from Gaza on Sunday showed plumes of dark smoke rising above a rubble-covered landscape and bloodied children wailing in dust-covered hospital wards. Mourners stood beside rows of bodies wrapped in white sheets. The Israeli military said over the weekend that it had approved plans for a larger ground invasion. Israeli forces have already taken control of large parts in and around Gaza City following a ground invasion from the north. The Times of Israel quoted Israeli officials saying on Sunday that the Israeli military had launched 10,000 airstrikes since the initial ground invasion began.

Who will run Gaza after the war? No good options (Washington Post) The Israelis say they don’t want the job. Arab nations are resisting. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas might volunteer, but the Palestinian people probably don’t want him. As the Biden administration begins to plan for “the day after” in Gaza—confronting problematic questions such as who runs the territory once the shooting stops, how it gets rebuilt and, potentially, how it eventually becomes a part of an independent Palestinian state—the stakeholders face a host of unattractive options. Following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Israel vowed to destroy the group as both a military and governing entity. But after more than 15 years in power in Gaza, Hamas and its supporters are deeply embedded in every sector of society—not only in the government ministries they run, but in charities, courts, mosques, sport teams, jails, municipalities and youth groups.

After Watching 10 Migrants Die at Sea, He Now Pleads: ‘Stay’ (NYT) Crowded together with 90 other migrants on a rickety fishing vessel bound for Spain, Moustapha Diouf watched 10 of them die, one by one, from heat and exhaustion. Five were friends. It was in that macabre moment 17 years ago, Mr. Diouf said, that he vowed to do everything in his power to stop others from making the choice he had and enduring the same fate: He would make it his mission to dissuade his fellow Senegalese from trying to reach Europe and drowning or dying in myriad other ways on the perilous journey. “If we don’t do anything, we become accomplices in their deaths,” said Mr. Diouf, 54. “I will fight every day to stop young people from leaving.” Mr. Diouf was among the lucky ones: He made it to the Canary Islands alive. But the whole experience was dreadful, he said. He was imprisoned and deported to Senegal. Upon his return, together with two other repatriates, he set up his nonprofit, known as AJRAP, or the Association of Young Repatriates, whose mission is persuading Senegal’s youth to stay. But he is painfully aware of his limitations. He does not have the capacity to offer anyone a job, and most choose to migrate anyway.

#headlines #news

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fenrislorsrai · 6 years ago

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Climate Change in Microcosm by UW–Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Via Flickr: Porcupettes, or baby porcupines, are at the center of ongoing research into the impact of climate change on wildlife. Photo credit: Michael P. King

#porcupettes #Grow Fall 2018 #UW-Madison/CALS #feature

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priorknowledgeishax · 7 years ago

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Kappa Kappa Kappa: It’s Three Emojis in a Row!

After we read Sternbergh’s “Smile, You’re Speaking Emoji: The Rapid Evolution of a Wordless Tongue,” I started to think about how and when I feel comfortable using emojis. He talked about the different ways that they are used among friends and how they operate within close relationship (Sternbergh). They’re obviously informal, and I have no problem using them with close friends and family. But sometimes they are used in professional contexts, and it can either be appropriate or completely unprofessional. I feel like whether or not you can just send someone emojis is a kind of intimacy measurement. Like, a really good friend, I can just send a string of emojis in response and that’s totally fine. A friendly professional relationship might mean I can end a sentence with a : ) (never a :P though, noooooope) and I would also not let them shift into emojis, I tend to leave them as emoticons in friendly professional contexts. But it’s not like I would send them the usual string of three emojis that I do with my friends.

I have no idea why I typically send emojis in groups of three when I’m conversing with those I feel close to. It’s a habit I think I picked up on Twitch chats, where you can spam lines and lines of emojis and it’s just part of the expected atmosphere. It makes sense that emojis are common there though—like we read in “Streaming on Twitch,” Twitch acts as a kind of Third Place (Hamilton, Garretson, and Kerne) so it’s both a public place and close-knit community. There are definitely “regulars” and there are accepted methods of interaction. I used to spend a lot of time on the TwitchPlaysPokemon stream, and we would all spam emojis like crazy. Maybe that’s because the chat moved so fast that you couldn’t read the messages, and a single emoji would be hard to notice at the rate the chat window went by. So including several of the same emoji made it easier to see and notice, plus it was participating in a cool moment when it happened. It’s a weird habit, but maybe it was a practical one after all. Well, at least for a Twitch chat going a million miles an hour.

Works Cited

Sternbergh, Adam. "Smile, You're Speaking Emoji: The Rapid Evolution of a Wordless Tongue." New York Magazine. November 16, 2014. http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/11/emojis-rapid-evolution.html. Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.

Hamilton, William A., Garretson, Oliver, and Andruid Kerne. “Streaming on Twitch: Fostering Participatory Communities of Play within Live Mixed Media.” Proceedings of the 32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI 14, 2014, doi:10.1145/2556288.2557048. Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.

#ENGL108D #UW Fall 2018 #Twitch #Twitchplayspokemon #Emojis #be professional for once!#too late #streaming #third places

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daggerzine · 3 years ago

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A chat with Kiki of Kiki’s House of Righteous Music in Madison, Wisconsin (by Eric Eggleson)

A friend and I recently had the pleasure of attending a show at Kiki’s House of Righteous Music. It’s truly amazing what Kiki Schueler has put together in her basement (and in her backyard as well). I had heard about her shows, but I never got the chance to go to one. When Jason Ringenberg was scheduled; I knew I had to go. Think of a bunch of friends gathering together in someone’s basement listening to music you love. There are gig posters all over the walls from many great concert venues in the Midwest. And then, in walks a national recording artist who begins sharing his life and his music. Needless to say, we were amazed. Kiki welcomed us into her home and her love of music is obvious when you meet her. I asked her if she would answer a few questions for Dagger and she agreed.

When did Kiki’s House of Righteous Music start?

Back in 2005, I had just read an article about house concerts when my friend Tim Easton sent an email looking for show ideas in between Chicago and Minneapolis. I cautiously offered, “you could play here…” He immediately wrote back, “I was hoping you would say that!”

How do you choose artists?

It has to be someone I love. I don’t book artists I haven’t seen. I’ll do a show anytime someone I want to play can play. Sometimes I contact them; sometimes they find me.

Which artist has played the most?

Jon Dee Graham. He first played show #3 in 2007 with The Silos and has played a total of 23 times. Although Robbie Fulks (18) and Jon Langford (21) are threatening for the lead.

What are some of your most memorable artist performances?

The Baseball Project show after Scott McCaughey had recovered from a stroke. It was their first show outside the Seattle area, and it is always surreal to have half of REM in my basement. Robbie Fulks has brought some truly amazing musicians with him, and his shows are always transcendent. Andre Williams with the GoldStars; he’s still the only artist to have changed his outfit for the encore. The Figgs have played marathon thirty plus song shows, and no one is ever ready for them to stop. Jon Langford and John Szymanski playing for a dozen people in the backyard last fall. This was the only live music anyone had seen in months.

Who would you like to perform?

Lou Barlow, Joe Ely, Dave Simonett, MC Taylor, Craig Finn, Bill Kirchen, John Darnielle, the list goes on, some more realistic than others.

How has Covid-19 affected you?

I watched a lot of streaming shows in the last year and a half, and it totally worked for me, so I didn’t miss live music as much as some people did. I still went to work most days. I missed doing the shows of course, but I was just as happy reading books and watching movies. Turns out I might be an introvert, who knew?

How many shows have you lost because of it?

I think I had to cancel about fourteen. Since I usually do thirty plus shows a year, it’s safe to say I lost at least that many.

What’s your day job?

I work at UW Madison as a researcher in a lab in the Biochemistry department.

You have a great situation happening, what suggestion would you give to help other people to start doing what you do?

It never hurts to ask. If there is someone you want to play, just ask.

A good place to start is with Undertow (https://undertowshows.com/pages/about-undertow). They set up living room shows for a number of artists, and they make it really easy to do your first show by walking you through the how to’s. Bonus, they take care of tickets.

For the show I went to, Jason said he gets all the ticket sales. Who pays for the sound guy? What’s in it for you?

I’ve been very lucky to find sound people who volunteer their time in exchange for dinner and a few beers. And of course, a great show. For me, I get to see a band I love in my basement.

Have you had any backlash or bad situations with artists/neighbors?

Never anything bad with the artists, everyone has been great and very happy to be here. Most of my neighbors think what I’m doing is cool. In the early days, they would see all the cars, but no people inside, so I think they were happy to find out that I was having music in my basement and not something else. There have been a few complaints about parking, but none about noise.

I loved the Sessions at McPike Park concert you set up in Madison with Chuck Prophet and Bonnie Whitmore. How did that come about? Do you do this kind of thing often because of your connections?

Bob Queen asked if I’d be interested in curating a night of the Sessions back in 2018, though I still don’t know what prompted him to ask me. I think he was looking for someone with a different perspective. This year was my third, and every show has been a blast. I don’t do it often, just the Session once a year; for the most part, the basement is big enough for me.

Top Ten desert island discs? (If you were stuck on a desert island, what 10 albums would you HAVE to have with you?)

There’s only two I have to have- Bob Dylan Blood on the Tracks and Chris Mills The Silver Line, three through ten probably change on a daily basis.

First record or piece of music you bought?

Billy Joel The Stranger

What are some of your favorite concert venues?

The Hideout in Chicago, Fitzgerald’s in Berwyn, The Turf Club in St Paul and Café Carpe in Ft. Atkinson.

Favorite live shows? Bob Dylan, Robbie Fulks, Ha Ha Tonka, Dead Man Winter, and Hiss Golden Messenger.

Finish this sentence: I want to be remembered for…

My band T-shirt collection? I don’t need to be remembered, I just want everyone to have a good time right now.

That is so true. Kiki’s love of music is something she has to share with other like-minded people. At first I thought it was the joy of finally seeing a live show because of Covid-19 cancelling so many concerts; but watching, fully masked, made me realize it’s the warmth Kiki’s shows brings to the music scene. My friend and I hope to go back soon. We missed Steve Wynn, but maybe we’ll catch him next time around.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/363474586571/

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thecollegefootballguy · 3 years ago

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2021 PAC-12 Coaching Power Rankings

The power rankings roll on, time for the PAC-12.

Check out last year’s rankings here.

As a whole, the PAC-12 lacks a superstar head coach. There’s no Nick Saban or Dabo Swinney or Lincoln Riley in this league. In a way it makes things more competitive, there isn’t a true elite program in the league at the moment that sucks up all the oxygen.

As far as the rankings go, there’s a lot of movement at the bottom as coaches with similar resumes jostle for position. There was a bit of a bloodletting in the conference during the 2019 offseason so only one change was made here. Arizona’s Kevin Sumlin led one of the worst teams in FBS football onto the field in 2020 and he was deservedly fired for it.

12. Jedd Fisch

Overall Record: 1-1

Movement: N/A

Jedd Fisch has had a long coaching career that has taken him all over college football and the NFL. However, his only experience as a head coach was as an interim following the firing of Jim Mora at UCLA in 2017. Fisch enters a rebuilding situation as Arizona really began to fall apart towards the end of Sumlin’s tenure.

11. Jonathan Smith

Record at Oregon State: 9-22

Movement: Down 1 spot

Believe it or not but I still believe in Jonathan Smith. The Beavers were very close to breaking through in 2019 and very well would have made a bowl if the full 2020 season had been played. The surprise win over Oregon certainly helped to soften the blow of a losing season. I think firing him because of his losing record so far would jeopardize the progress the program has made so far.

10. Nick Rolovich

Record at Washington State: 1-3 Overall Record: 29-30

Movement: Down 1 spot

Washington State only played 4 games so it’s hard to accurately judge if the Cougars were really all that bad in 2020. I’m inclined to say no, but the on-field results weren’t stellar all the same. I think we need to see how Wazzu does in a full 12 game season to more accurately gauge if the program is heading in the right direction.

9. Justin Wilcox

Record at California: 21-21

Movement: Down 3 spots

Moving Wilcox down was more bad luck than anything. Cal certainly wasn’t a 1-3 team if you watched them play. I mean their one win was an upset over conference champion Oregon. The Bears have built a solid foundation thanks to Justin Wilcox so I imagine they’ll be bouncing back soon.

8. Herm Edwards

Record at Arizona State: 17-13

Movement: Down 1 spot

This one is more a function of time than anything. Everybody saw Arizona State play last year and started salivating for what’s to come. The pieces all seem in place for ASU to take a step forward. They’ll be a good team this year and it looks like further improvement is possible. Well, that’s if the NCAA doesn’t stamp out this whole administration.

7. Karl Dorrell

Record at Colorado: 4-2 Overall Record: 35-27

Movement: Up 4 spots

We might as well congratulate Karl Dorrell on a much more successful than anticipated season. The Buffaloes punched above their weight in 2020, nearly unseating USC as South Division champion. CU hopes that Dorrell can keep the magic going and build a competitive program.

6. Jimmy Lake

Record at Washington: 3-1

Movement: Up 6 spots

This one is more of a compromise move. I have a hard time placing Jimmy Lake because he’s only been the head coach of four football games. In those games the Huskies generally looked good and technically won the PAC-12 North. They had bad COVID outbreaks that left them out of several games and cost them a chance to play in the PAC-12 Championship Game. The upside is clear. I do think, however, that UW wasn’t the best team in the PAC-12 or even the North division. They’ll have to beat Oregon to truly contend for the championship here. 2021 will give us a real idea.

5. Chip Kelly

Record at UCLA: 10-21 Overall Record: 56-28

Movement: Same

Much like Arizona State, a lot of people with their ears to the ground think this is the year that UCLA takes a step forward. We may have seen good improvement in 2020, the Bruins really were an improved team. The problem was the 7 game schedule they played and their 3-4 record. I’m pretty sure they’d have bowled last year if the full 12 games had been played. Either way, the verdict is the same for most of the coaches: the 2020 season shouldn’t count they way a real winning or losing season in a 12 game schedule should. If Kelly can get things back together for UCLA, it should be in 2021.

4. Clay Helton

Record at USC: 45-23 Division Championships: 3 (2015, 2017, 2020) Conference Championships: 1 (2017)

Movement: Same

USC is probably the PAC-12 team that came away looking the best in 2020. The Trojans claimed another PAC-12 South title and rode it to a 5-1 record with a loss to Oregon in the Championship Game. Is that a good thing? I don’t know, it might keep Clay Helton around for longer because his hardware cabinet did get bigger. Helton keeps getting good results, but real greatness still seems remote.

3. Mario Cristobal

Record at Oregon: 25-10 Overall Record: 52-57 Division Championships: 1 (2019) Conference Championships: 2 (2019, 2020)

Movement: Same

Mario Cristobal has won the past two PAC-12 Championships so he’s rising as high as possible given the circumstances. If he knocks on the door just a bit harder he’ll make a case to unseat the two truly established coaches in the conference. Oregon is starting to look and act like an elite program, maybe elite-lite, but the way they’re recruiting and winning they’re starting to separate themselves from the rest of the league. If Cristobal can keep it up the Ducks can enjoy the same conference-wide domination that Clemson enjoys in the ACC.

2. Kyle Whittingham

Record at Washington: 134-66 Division Championships: 3 (2015, 2018, 2019) Conference Championships: 1 (2008)

Movement: Same

The Utes were again a very solid team in the PAC-12 in 2020. Kyle Whittingham has kept up a winning tradition in Salt Lake City and has established himself well. Utah should once again compete for the South title in 2021, as they seem to do pretty much every year thanks to Whittingham.

1. David Shaw

Record at Stanford: 90-36 Division Championships: 5 (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017) Conference Championships: 3 (2012, 2013, 2015)

Movement: Same

A dreary start masked a rather successful comeback season for Stanford, who rebounded to a 4-2 record with a win over division champ Washington. The Cardinal seem far removed from their days of domination from 2009-2015, but they remain a dangerous force in the league. David Shaw seems keen to preserve what remains of the powerful engine he inherited from Jim Harbaugh. Stanford may no longer be favorites but they remain competitive in a tough division. I imagine at some point Shaw will fall off the list as long as things keep up this way, but first a coach has to come and knock him off the pedestal.

#college football #Arizona Wildcats #Oregon State Beavers #Washington State Cougars #California Golden Bears #Arizona State Sun Devils #Colorado Buffaloes #Washington Huskies #UCLA Bruins #USC Trojans #Oregon Ducks #Utah Utes #Stanford Cardinal

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womenintranslation · 4 years ago

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Q&A with Sarli E. Mercado about the 4W-International Women Collective Translation Project at UW-Madison + a poem in translation by Luisa Futoransky

At the WiT Tumblr we were delighted to receive news of The 4W-International Women Collective Translation Project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (“4W-WIT”), an initiative in which “readers, translators, and interpreters translate literary texts – particularly poetry – by writers from the Americas and Spain.” Its defining philosophy is that “the practice of collective translation is linked to our ability to make meaning together and foster collective wellbeing.”

We asked the co-leader of the project, Sarli E. Mercado from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UW-Madison, to fill us in a bit more about the origins of the project and about how the workshop runs:

What is 4W-WIT and how did it begin?

In 2018 Lori DiPrete Brown and I began to invite women writers and translators interested in the project to collaborate with us on creating a translation workshop in which texts, mainly by Latin American writers, would be translated collectively. 4W-WIT includes women colleagues and students from various disciplines interested in translation.

In 2019 4W-WIT received a Borghesi Mellon grant from the UW-Madison Center for the Humanities to continue organizing public events and workshops. (Our 2019-2020 Annual Report includes more information about the workshop and short videos of our sessions). Our project is growing slowly. We’ve begun to invite younger poets, writers, scholars, and translators to attend our online events and workshops. We also collaborate with the Museum of Environmental Studies at the Universidad de Guadalajara, the creator of the Premio Ciudad y Naturaleza José Emilio Pacheco, and with Meninas Cartonera Editorial and Ultramarina Cartonera in Spain.

What happens in the workshops?

4W-WIT's methodology for collective translation requires multiple perspectives and iterations and reviews by the author. It has a circular aspect since we begin the meeting by listening to the author read their work. A discussion of the content and context follows. After that, we translate the work collectively in several sessions. There is usually a final meeting with the author to discuss the final version of the translation.

Poetry International recently published one of our translations, “Juana de Arco, el portal / Joan of Arc, the Gateway,” by the Argentine poet Luisa Futoransky, a poem we chose because it relates to our experiences in confinement due to Covid-19. Thanks to our collaborator Phillipa Page in the UK, it’s been added to the archive she created of Luisa's work at Poetry International.

What plans do you have for the upcoming academic year?

We’re still preparing our fall program, but we’ll continue to work on the same projects as last year, and invite poets and translators to visit our workshops.

Click here to read 4W-WIT’s collaborative translation of Luisa Futoransky’s Juana de Arco, el portal / Joan of Arc, the Gateway on the Poetry International website.

#4W-International Women Collective Translation Project #Sarli E. Mercado #Lori DiPrete Brown #Luisa Futoransky #WiTMonth2020

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uwlittlemags · 5 years ago

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Paper or Plastic?

The quesion we hear a little less at grocery stores these days. In that particular area of our lives, the debate seems to have been settled - paper or reusable bags are the superior options.

But the question of paper or plastic seems to be moving beyong the grocery store.

In the Fall/Winter 2018 issue of Ecotone, editor Anna Lena Phillips Bell announced:

"We've moved from sending subscribers mailings in what are known in the industry as polybags - those pesky plastic bags that many magazines and catalogs arrive in - to mailing in recycled-paper envelopes."

A few months later, around June 2019, Poetry magazine followed suit.

However, Poetry didn't use words to announce the change. Instead, the packaging did the talking. Instead of a pesky plastic bag, the month's issue - and all subsequent issues - arrived in a white paper envelope. On the back of the envelope was the above image. The image spells out POETRY with drawings of plastic materials such as plastic flatware, plastic bags, plastic six pack rings, plastic bottles, and more. Next to the image is the phrase "Please recycle this envelope".

Here at UW-Special Collections, we've been curious about the ways Lit Mags have been looking at this in both past and present settings. We're still looking into this. Unfortunately, the packaging in the past was not something anyone thought to save and the arrive of the collection goes through many people before making its way up to us. That said, we've had some luck finding fascinating examples of a few Lit Mags that incorporate the packing into the magazine. More on that in future posts!

#The Little Magazine #little magazines #Little magazine #lit mag #Lit mags #Poetry #Ecotone #Poetry Magazine #Poetry Foundation #Recycle #Paper or plastic #UW-Madison #uwmadison #special collections #UW Special Collections #UW Madison #UW Madison Special Collections #UW Little Magazine Collection #Little Magazine Collection

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baggettsathome · 5 years ago

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Forward to 2020!

Happy new year to all! We wanted to post before the end of the year to let you know why you haven’t heard from us for a while: Nate has been feeling great and we’ve been enjoying a couple months of “normal�� life.

That’s certainly been the biggest blessing for us to celebrate over the holidays. During this season of giving, we’ve been constantly thankful for the awe-inspiring gifts of life Nate has received and the three Christmases we’ve had together because of those gifts.

Kicking off the Christmas season with a tour of Wrigley in November.

Even when he’s been feeling well, transplantation is never far from our minds. Life after transplant comes with long list of responsibilities and new worries. We’ve certainly faced fewer complications and setbacks this fall than earlier in the year, but that doesn’t necessarily mean things have been easy.

The biggest challenge for Nate this fall was getting off opioids. Nate was taking some form of opioid continuously from August 2018-November 2019 -- almost 15 months of being on powerful pain relievers. For Nate, opioids have been a necessary evil. After all of his surgeries, he had near constant, excruciating pain that kept him up at night and made it hard to think clearly. The pain medications gave some relief, but they weren’t without downside. They have a lot of side effects, and the most bothersome for Nate was how cloudy the meds made his thinking feel. But every time he tried to taper off them, a new complication arose that meant he needed to go back to a higher dose.

So as soon as Nate was feeling better, he tried to get off opioids. After his first and second transplants, Nate stopped the medications too quickly and went through withdrawal. So this time, he slowly tapered down his dose over almost 10 weeks. Tapering slowly was more tolerable than stopping abruptly, but he still experienced some uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms. He was achy, he couldn’t sleep, his nose wouldn’t stop running, he had headaches and random tremors, and he was more sensitive to pain for a couple weeks. Finally, by the middle of November, he was feeling more like himself. He was able to transition from opioids to just Tylenol. Now, he’s taking no regularly scheduled pain medications, just Tylenol occasionally when the pain gets intolerable.

But even when Nate is feeling ok, we’re anxious. And we’ve encountered a few new worries. In October, Nate started to get itchy. It was a familiar and scary symptom, one that -in the past- has been a sign that his liver was beginning to fail. (The liver processes toxins in the blood and when it isn’t working, those toxins build up and make you itch.) At the same time that was happening, one of his liver labs began drifting barely above normal. It was a nerve-wracking couple of weeks as we stressed over what might be coming. Were infections beginning to form in his liver? Was the blood supply finally petering out? Eventually, his doctors did a scan of his liver to check in. They found... a whole lot of nothing, which was a great relief. The MRI report found that his liver was unchanged since July, still inexplicably stable even without a blood supply from the hepatic artery to support it.

Seeing Hamilton in Appleton in October.

Despite new challenges and worries, each day reminds us of how wonderful life can be. We continue to be blessed with moments to treasure with our closest friends, god kids, and family. We have a renewed appreciation for simple pleasures like an evening at home cooking together, doing work in the yard, and preparing for the holidays together at home. We’ve also taken advantage of the opportunity to create some special moments. The last few months have included attending musicals and concerts, several nights out with friends, a trip to Chicago, and family gatherings that -after all we’ve been through- have taken on an extra meaning. We’ve loved getting to be around for the special moments of others too, sharing in both the joys and the trials.

We’re ending the year 2019 remembering the special donors who gave us this new chance at life and the hundreds of health care providers and hospital staff who were there by our side through it all.

We’re starting the new year looking ahead with a lot of uncertainty. It’s been just six months since Nate’s last surgery, and his future is still very unsure. But we are also full of hope that 2020 and the decade ahead is full of love, togetherness, and happy adventures.

A day at the Shedd Aquarium with our god kids in November

A Merry Tuba Christmas at the State Capitol with our friend Laura!

Making Christmas dinner for the Schnoebelen family with sister-in-law Joy!

A holiday outing with some of Nate’s family to the Milwaukee Public Museum

Life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful. 2019 UW Vascular Surgery Department Holiday Party

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bubblysnake · 5 years ago

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The Plight of the Wisconsin Bee

Bee populations in Wisconsin are in fast decline. Wisconsin beekeepers lost more than 60% of their colonies in 2014 and 2015, according to recent data from the USDA-funded Bee Informed Survey(Stentz). Certain species are being hit harder than others. When R.P. Macfarlane, a New Zealand bumblebee researcher employed by Wisconsin's, cranberry industry, studied bumblebee populations in northern Wisconsin in 1993, researchers reported that the yellow-banded bumblebee made up approximately 93% of the bumblebees recorded; in 2009 they constituted less than 1% of bumblebees in the region. Secluded populations of this bumblebee located in the towns of Moutain, Manitowish Waters, and Two Rivers in 2007 and 2008 were the only chronicled observations of this species in the Midwest(Sperling). Bees are vital to Wisconsin's agriculture and ecosystem. According to Kent Pegorsch, a beekeeper in Waupaca and the president of the Wisconsin Honey Producers Association, “Wild honeybee colonies have almost vanished from the landscape compared to 30 years ago.” Their numbers are declining due to urbanization, pesticides, parasites, habitat loss, and exportation, but they can be saved through various methods.

Bees are essential to our way of life in Wisconsin. Without them, the agriculture industry would be severely damaged. Bumblebees use a technique called "buzz pollination," where the female bee holds the flower's stamens in her jaws and flaps her wings to shake them - shaking off grains of pollen. This behavior is very useful in cross-pollinating berries, tomatoes and peppers. Large fruits and plentiful tomatoes are credited to plants pollinated by bumblebees. They are also vital pollinators of native plants whose seeds nourish game birds. Although some plants are additionally pollinated by the breeze and by mammals such as bats, bee pollination from controlled hives and wild native bees continues to be an essential piece of the puzzle, nurturing both indigenous and cultivated plant species(Sperling). According to Kent Pegorsch, “Crops like cranberries, melons, pickles, etc. require honeybee pollinations. Without healthy honeybees, production is greatly reduced.”

Wisconsin agriculture isn’t the only thing being severely damaged by bee deaths. Our ecosystem is under stress, too. Pollinators are cornerstone species in the majority of earthly ecosystems. Fruits and seeds derived from insect pollination are a large component of the diet of about 25% of all birds, and of mammals of any kind. In many areas, the necessary benefit of pollination is being threatened(Xerxes Society). By helping in wild food growth, aiding in nutrient cycling, and as prey, pollinators are necessary in food chains. Many nomadic songbirds need a daily intake of berries, fruits and seeds from insect pollinated plants and the larvae of these insects are a valuable aspect of the nourishment of these birds, according to the research team from the Nebraska Ornithologists Union. Bumblebees are thought to be the leading pollinators of many indigenous plants and cranberries. The key to keeping produce abundant and flowers growing is amplifying native bee populations(Sperling). According to Pegorsch, “There are fewer and fewer native bees and butterflies to pollinate. A healthy environment needs a balance and bees help provide this.

One of the great threats against Wisconsin bees today is urbanization. Urbanization has damaged food sources and habitat. Paved streets and parking lots take up space that could be used by bees for burrowing(Mesch). Kent Pegorsch states, “(Urbanization) has reduced large tracks of land that formerly held important food sources for bees. It also limits areas where beekeepers can place bees and limits wild areas where native bees nested.”

Yet another enemy of the Wisconsin bee is pesticides and herbicides. According to Terri Fuller, president of the Friends of Horicon National Wildlife Refuge, and Corrine Daniels, the nursery director with Applied Ecological Services at Taylor Creek Restoration Nurseries, the bees in Wisconsin are being hurt by pesticides(Dargan). According to Kent Pegorsch, “Whereas chemicals are important to farming, the overuse of chemicals (in agriculture) are adding stress to honeybees and shortening their lives. This makes it hard for colonies to survive. New pesticides don’t kill bees immediately but they kill bees over a prolonged exposure so it is difficult to prove that pesticides are hurting our bees BUT they are. Unfortunately, because the damage is so gradual, more and more of these pesticides are being used.” UW Extension’s Arboretum Expert Susan Carpenter explained that “Agriculture by itself without the insecticides might leave some habitat in plants in the area, but you know when the herbicides are used edge-to-edge in fields, there's no extra plants around the edges or anything that the pollinators are going to use”(Mesch).

Parasites are also damaging the livelihoods of Wisconsin bees. Some Wisconsin beekeepers reported deaths of bees in the winter of 2017 to 2018, caused by a parasite called the varroa mite that infests hives and kills developing bees. Liz Meils, the state apiarist for the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, said that beekeepers had been losing around half their hives for the past 5 to 10 years(AP Regional State Report). Kent Pegorsch explained that “The varroa mite is a mite that lives on the bee. It shortens the bees life by stressing the bee and allowing viruses to enter the bee.”

Habitat loss also poses an intimidating threat to bees. Terri Fuller and Corrine Daniels have reported that a large portion of the creatures that pollinate Wisconsin plants are under stress from habitat loss(Dargan). Soft earth that would normally be used as a home for bees is being replaced with pavement more and more every day. Although we consider bees to be sociable bugs who inhabit hives with extremely systematized social roles, a majority of bee species are solitary and near 70% of indigenous bee species burrow their homes in the ground or close to the ground instead of in unsheltered hives. The female bees either dig up burrows with a collection of brood chambers or utilize preexisting tunnels or cavities dug by insects, worms, or rodents into dirt or bark. Protecting the homes and vegetation these native bees utilize is a substantial plan of action for maintaining acceptable amounts of plant pollinators where honeybee numbers are usually lower, have reduced greatly or are in small amounts(Sperling).

As if all of this aforementioned damage to Wisconsin bees wasn’t enough, one species of bumblebee are declining due to the international shipment of commercially-bred bumblebees. Two of those species formerly prevalent to the northeastern and midwestern states, the yellow-banded bumblebee and the rusty-patched bumblebee are broadly missing from their usual area. They are prolific pollinators of wildflowers, alfalfa, berries and other crops like cucumbers and pumpkins. Additional bumblebee species might also be diminishing, although it is difficult to judge if falling populations are localized or further across the board since indigenous bee populations are usually only studied in a small quantity of places instead of throughout their natural territory(Sperling).

In the face of all this adversity, what can one do to save Wisconsin bees? Well, the first to do is to look for those who are helping already. According to Kent Pegorsch, “The Wisconsin Honey Producers Association, American Beekeeping Federation, Foundation for the Preservation of Honeybees, Bee and Butterfly Habitat fund, and Bee Informed Partnership are just a few of the organizations working to save the bees.” Indigenous bee protection was first mentioned by the Farm Bill(Food Conservation and Energy Act) in 2008. The Farm Bill also supplied money for melittology(the study of bees) and bee habitat conservation. Services included by the House of Representatives turned pollinator preservation into a national priority in preservation systems managed by the federal Department of Agriculture. The Farm Bill additionally supplied $10 million a year for the following five years for grants to study honey bee and native bee biology, possible resolutions for colony collapse disorder, bee health, and bee ecology. An extra $7.5 million merged bee study initiatives into the USDA Agriculture Research Service, $2.5 million went toward examining and observing honeybee populations for five years, and giving insurance and disaster relief to beekeepers(Sperling). Acknowledging the significance of honey bees and other pollinators to farming and the well-being of natural system, President Barack Obama created the Pollinator Task Force to cultivate a nationwide plan of action to preserve and advance health of pollinators. The task force announced the Pollinator Research Action Plan in May 2015. This extensive project directs the federal agenda, along with investigation, to improve and advance pollinator habitat and populations. The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is making important contributions to conserve and benefit pollinator health and support U.S. agriculture. Between 2018 and 2014, NIFA invested around $40 million in competitive and capacity grants committed to research, expansion, and educational programming on the well-being of bees. In May 2016, NIFA released a contemporary, stand-alone $6 million financing opportunity by way of the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative's Food Security Challenge Area to devote effort into part of the first concerns of the Pollinator Research Action Plan(Ramaswamy).

Individuals are also doing their part to save the bees. In a survey of 690 Wisconsin inhabitants, 66.5% were confident that they had done something within the past year for the specific purpose of saving the bees. These actions included planting flowers, buying local honey, not actively trying to kill bees, building beehives, educating others about bees, encouraging others to stop using herbicides, refraining from removing or preventing the growth of dandelions, feeding sugar water to bees, gifting bee hotels to friends, encouraging others to stop overusing insecticides, donating to local beekeepers, planting vegetables, trying to recycle more, researching charities that are beneficial to bees, avoiding the use of herbicides and pesticides, participating in bee-positive social media campaigns, trying to maintain a rotational bloom, using wildlife-friendly landscaping, letting their garden overgrow, building bee houses, spreading awareness about the bee crisis, avoiding stepping on bees, researching the bee crisis, keeping the lawn unmowed, purchasing products from beekeepers, not pulling flowering weeds, protecting bee nests, signing petitions to help bees, purchasing products from bee-friendly companies, planting fruit trees, and wearing clothing that promotes the welfare of bees. When asked if they cared for a personal or community garden, 57.8% of respondents said no and 42.2% said yes.

One of the best things that a Wisconsin inhabitant can do for bees is garden. One doesn't need a field of wildflowers to attract bees. All you need is a small garden with various types of plants, even shrubs and grasses. Bees need a variety of flowers that bloom throughout the season. Keeping this in mind, plant flowers that bloom from early spring to mid-summer, and balance that with flowers that start blooming mid-summer through fall. Even a well-pruned garden can be bee-friendly if it has the right plants for the job. As long as it has (preferably fragrant) flowers that bloom throughout the season and yield nectar, a garden can be a feast(Mesch). Using native local flowers is important. Science shows us that indigenous vegetation is four times more appealing to native bees and butterflies than invasive species. In garden, heirloom types of herbs and perennial plants can also supply beneficial foraging. Plant multiple shades of flowers with a diversity of heights. Indigenous bees are especially captivated by blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow petals(Sperling). Bee-friendly Wisconsin flowers include, but are not limited to: Poppies, crocuses, heather, black-eyed Susans, wild indigos, goldenrod, milkweed, prairie clovers, and sunflowers. Bee-friendly flowers are full of easily accessible nectar and pollen. A good bee-friendly garden is big, with hedges that are at least 6 feet high. This is because bees tend to fly at head level, so this will force them to fly higher, making them less of a disturbance in a neighbor's yard. Flowers are best planted in clusters rather than alone, so that they can be more noticeable by the bees(Sillver). Try to avoid pesticides in your garden, as they can be toxic to pollinators. If using pesticides is absolutely necessary, use them at night when bees aren't around, and cover plants when the pesticides are still working to deter bees from touching them(Mesch). When asked for advice on growing a bee-friendly garden, Kent Pegorsch responded, “Gardens provide important nectar and pollen sources for bees in the ‘should’ seasons. Those are time of the year when there is not a lot of a bee’s main forage (like clover, alfalfa and other main honey plants). Buy your seed mixes from companies that specialize in pollinator mixes. And buy the mixes that are suited for Wisconsin. (Don’t cut your) lawn as quickly. Leave dandelions and Dutch clover bloom in their lawns and leave wild areas of flowers bloom. Generally – have smaller and weedier lawns.”

Although many common farming practices are detrimental to bees, Wisconsin farmers can also works to protect Wisconsin’s pollinators. One increasingly popular technique for farmers who are trying to use native bees to their advantage is to advance the inartificial development of grasses, shrubs and trees around their fields. For example, rather than leasing honeybees, canola farmers in Alberta discovered that they obtained higher-quality seeds and boosted profits if at least 30% of their farmland was kept in natural habitat and cover instead of planting fencerow to fencerow. These areas of wild plants supplied food and shelter for more indigenous bees and multiplied bee visitations at the time when their vegetation flowered. Influence from native bees can also induce honeybees to be more efficient and productive when pollinating hybrid seed plants by compelling the honeybees to travel more repeatedly between chains of female and male produce. In regions where farm fields have lost a large amount of their uncultivated pollinators, surrounding pastures become more important and offer two useful assets, according to agricultural and ecology scientists. Firstly, they serve as a backup resource for insects that pollinate crops. Secondly, they work as an asylum in which pollinating insects can increase their health before bit by bit recolonizing damaged farmlands(Sperling). Kent Pegorsch asks that farmers “Look for ways to reduce chemical usage. Leave some areas wilds so that honeybees, native bees and butterflies have food sources.” He also advises that farmers look into “Integrated Pest management. IPM – only using pesticides when they are really necessary. Monitor fields for insect problems and use pesticides only when they really need to be used. Not on a regular basis.”

One of the best ways to reduce bee deaths is at the root, in education. In a survey of 690 Wisconsin inhabitants, 11.7% of respondents were unsure if they wanted to help stop the Wisconsin bees from dying, with these reasons being the majority of what was cited: not knowing where to start, being unsure if bees are truly in jeopardy, not knowing enough about the issue, not being aware that they could have any power in the situation, not feeling passionate about bees, being unsure of how many bees are living in Wisconsin, not wanting bees to start overpopulating Wisconsin, not being sure how to help from an apartment, not knowing how effective it would be to work towards bee conservation, and not knowing how bee conservation would benefit them personally. Many of these doubts stem from uncertainty, but education can reduce this. Respondents were asked to rate their knowledge about Wisconsin's falling bee population on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being a complete lack of knowledge and 5 being an expert in the subject. 36.5% rated their knowledge at 2, 33% chose 3, 21.4% chose 1, 7.8% chose 4, and 1.8% chose 5. Respondents were asked to rate their knowledge about Wisconsin bee conservation strategies on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being a complete lack of knowledge and 5 being an expert. 40.6% of respondents rated their knowledge at 1, 31.9% chose 2, 19.6% chose 3, 6.8% chose 4, and 1.2% chose 5. If these respondents were more educated on the subject of bee endangerment, they would have the ability to take action.

Bees are essential to Wisconsin's farm industry and environment. Their population is decreasing because of several factors, but their numbers can be conserved through gardening, changes of agriculture techniques, beekeeping, and education.

Bibliography:

"Wisconsin beekeepers see high bee losses this winter." AP Regional State Report, 10 Mar. 2018. EBSCOhost. Accessed 14 Mar. 2019.

Dargan, Jennifer. 5 Native Plants That Will Attract Bees and Other Pollinators. Board of Regents of the U of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, 13 May 2015. The Larry Meiller Show. Wisconsin Public Radio. Accessed 19 Mar. 2019.

Doherty, Lucille Lynne. "Bees in Wisconsin." 27 Mar. 2019. Raw data.

Mesch, Shelley K. "HELP CAN BE AS CLOSE AS A BACKYARD; DANE CO., UW EXTENSION SAY RESIDENTS CAN BOOST NATIVE BEE POPULATIONS." Wisconsin State Journal [Madison, Wisconsin], 29 Oct. 2017. EBSCOhost. Accessed 11 Mar. 2019.

Pegorsch, Kent. E-mail interview. 26 Mar. 2019.

"Pollinator Conservation." The Xerxes Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Accessed 13 Mar. 2019.

Sillver, Hazel. "Give a Bee a Home." Are Mass Extinctions Inevitable?, edited by Noah Berlatsky, Detroit, MI, Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Accessed 7 Mar. 2019. Originally published in The Times, 21 Sept. 2008.

Sperling, David L. "What's the Buzz about Bees?" Wisconsin Natural Resources, vol. 33, no. 3, June 2009. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Accessed 20 Mar. 2019.

Stentz, Molly. "Buzz Kill." Isthmus [Madison, Wisconsin], 28 Jan. 2016. Isthmus. Accessed 7 Apr. 2019.

United States, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Reversing Pollinator Decline is Key to Feeding the Future. By Sonny Ramaswamy, Dr., Economic Research Service, 24 June 2016. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Accessed 14 Mar. 2019.

#bees #wisconsin #research #insects #bugs #honey #flowers #milwaukee #madison #midwest #science #writing #studyblr #academia #animals #butterflies #nature #plants

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uwmadarchives · 6 years ago

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E.P.S. 900: A Student-Run Course

A couple weeks ago I was hunting around in the archives for the Wisconsin Student Association’s (WSA, precursor to ASM) Student Power Report. The usual and simple search methods weren’t working so well, so I sat down with one of my coworkers at the desk to look into the murkier depths of the internal archival databases.

We discovered a single box labeled “P. Altbach” with a few promising folders. What piqued my interest, though, wasn’t the “WSA” folders, but a few others labeled, “Student Protest Policy”, “UW-Government-Military Links”, and “E.P.S. 900″, among others. It looked good on screen, so we grabbed the elevator key and began the journey down to the archives basement.

Finding a box like this is a lot like finding hidden treasure. Following the coordinate map of shelf location, we pulled off an old box that had been accessioned in 1980. When we opened it, it seemed like the materials hadn’t been touched since. Excitedly, anxiously, I brought it upstairs and placed it at the table like a huge present. Since I’m Jewish, I can only imagine that this is exactly what Christmas morning feels like.

Curious about the ambiguity of the “E.P.S. 900″ folder, I set it down on the table and opened it up. Inside were documents on documents regarding a class entitled “Educational Policy Studies 900: Experiments in Teaching and Learning,” an entirely student-run class created by a student group called The Center for Radical Education.

The folder contains lists of projects, letters between administrators and the students behind the Center for Radical Education, correspondence between students, a letter from a Harvard professor interested in recreating the course, class descriptions, and reports on the course itself written by students.

The folder contains a report on the first time the class was offered, as well as a report on the second time in Spring 1969, the course having been moved from EPS 900 to 350 to allow undergraduates the chance to enroll.

According to these reports, the class exists because of the activism of students and collaboration with some of the more progressive members of the Educational Policy department’s faculty (including Associate Professor Philip Altbach, the compiler of the collection for whom the box is named). According to their own report, the idea for the class came about in the summer of 1968, within a small community of Education School graduate studentsr. In Fall 1968, sixty grad students took this class for credit.

The class was structured around student-generated projects with a huge range of topics. A list published after the initial Fall 1968 class named 20 projects, including “Theater, Education, and Politics”, “High School Social Studies Curriculum”, “History of the Blues”, “Film Project”, “Black Employment Problems in America”, “Rent Strike Project” (lead by now-Mayor of Madison Paul Soglin), and a reading group on “cybernetics and technology”. The cybernetics project is described in detail in the report as gathering once a week “in one of the students apartments about eight at night and lasting until eleven or so before breaking up (and until one before total disbanding).” Though the cybernetics discussion group was one of the more successful projects, it seems like the energy of the participants was far from unusual within the course.

The second time the course was offered in Spring 1969, concurrent with the Black Student Strike, according to a letter sent out by the Center for Radical Education, the course had to be capped at 500 students because if enrollment were to be kept open, they would “end up with 1000 or more students in the course” and they simply could “not handle that number of students under our present set up.” In short, the course was wildly popular, but clearly lacked the resources that its organizers and participants needed.

The project list expanded in the course’s second run in Spring 1969. There were projects listed as “Black Studies Curriculum”, “Madison Tenant Union”, “Women’s Liberation”, “Free High School”, “Contemporary Poetry”, “Contemporary Radical Student Movements”, “New Theater” & “Community Theater”, “The Nature of Self Discovery”, “The Consumer and the Community”, and more.

As of my finding this box in Fall 2018, I haven’t found much of any secondary sources expanding on this class (though doubtless there are more materials tucked away in the archives directly related to this course and its organizers). On some of the project lists, there are names of project organizers attached, many of whom are likely still alive and could be interviewed for oral histories. With 500 students attending, this was no small phenomenon. I wonder about its impacts for student organizers and how it functioned within a greater contemporary scene of activism and student radicalism.

Not only are the research prospects of this course exciting, but its implications for the University today are enormous. As a student in 2018, what does it mean to me to know that there were student-run courses at this school just fifty years ago? It was hard-fought for, and unfortunately died away. Why? Why couldn’t this happen again? Could it?

In a moment of intense political upheaval, for me, a course like this feels like lifeblood. Could the work of these former students be a precedent or map for creating newly radical courses? I don’t know how many students have the time and energy for an undertaking like this. But there’s something electric in knowing that it is possible, that is has been done. As I continue researching this particular nook in UW’s Vietnam War-era activism, I hope my understandings can act as a talisman rather than a relic.

- Rena Yehuda Newman, Student Historian in Residence

#StudentHistory

#UW-Madison #education #higher education #Student Power #Student #Pedagogy #Education Policy #EdPol #Black Power #Union #Strike #Black Student Strike #Vietnam #Activism #Organizing #Student action #History #Archives

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goldenbloodorange · 6 years ago

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excerpt - The Windup and The Pitch

a sample from my NaNoWriMo project, completed December 2018 - it is currently being beta’d by a friend of mine, but here are two sample chapters introducing two main characters - if you read I am absolutely open to feedback!!

JENKINS

“You’re one of those lady ballplayers, huh?” The Uber driver, Jed, says with a lower respiratory punctuation as Justina gets in the car.

“Uh, yeah, I am,” Justina says, nodding and smiling.

She pulls out her phone and checks for any new messages. None yet.

Fuck, she curses mentally, and looks out the window. The car is going over the Hoan Bridge on 794, heading towards Downtown Milwaukee and Justina sees the gray stretch of Lake Michigan reaching to her right. There are a few boats bobbing aimlessly in the distance and they make a temporary distraction from checking her phone incessantly,.

“What a season you all had this year, oh boy. Now, I wish I would have gone to one of the games!”

“Uh, heh, yeah.” Usually Justina would love to chat with anyone who just wanted to talk baseball, but she is admittedly preoccupied.

She checks her phone a second time. Nothing.

Jed clears his throat and continues to externalize his thought process. “So uh….you’re...um...I know you, I know who you are. You’re...you’re…” Justina’s 25-foot tall Nike ad is pasted on the side of the building as they drive past; you see her name boldly emblazoned on her Belles uniform as she’s swinging, her side profile looking strong.

Jed means well. He is really trying. Justina doesn’t feel as bad about ignoring him as...he’s not an actual fan.

Justina’s phone finally buzzes. She’s waiting for a text from her agent (and teammate’s sister) Lenore Valenzuela, a lawyer turned sports agent who was almost scarily manipulative and good to have on your side, especially when it came to contract negotiations.

LV: Rumors of buyout are no longer rumors. Want to post for selection? Many MLB teams in the market for a spray hitting outfielder like you.

Justina’s heart stops. If she posts for selection, from the rumors she’s heard she could be drafted by any MLB team. Then what? Marinade in the minor leagues for a few years until the league decides she’s ready?

The pay bump, though. The pay bump.

The highest paid AAGPBL player wasn’t even making nearly what the league minimum in MLB was making - which, in Justina’s opinion, is both sad and to be expected. $535,000 was nothing to sneeze at - plus the luxury of being considered a pro ballplayer in a sport that had denied her participation all her life, and one of the first to finally make baseball a coed sport.

Minor leaguers in the MLB system were still paid like crap; not to mention the prospects of a player from this league posting were admittedly not great. Going from making not-so-great money...to not-so-great money...to possibly making the big bucks was not necessarily guaranteed.

“I played baseball as a kid,” Jed interjects. “They never let girls play with us.”

Justina nods politely at him through the rear view mirror. Though she always had a natural quick reflex when it came to fielding and hitting, Justina grew up being turned away from countless Little League teams. She eventually found a team that accepted her, but her family had to move from Mississippi to the Milwaukee suburbs as her father became unemployed and needed to move for work; he had a connection working in the food processing industry.

Jed rambles on. “My old man always said I’d get a college scholarship if I just practiced more.”

The more time Justina’s dad spent making sausage (he still works at the Klements factory off I-94), the less time he had to help Justina develop her swing. So she watched highlight reels and clinic videos on YouTube on the computers at the Milwaukee Public Library. Emulated the swings of some of her favorite hitters. Frank Thomas. Chipper Jones. Derek Jeter.

And she’d visit the cages after school to put her theories into test.

She’d get weird looks since it was mostly packs of mostly white teenage boys trying to put in cage time for high school ball, but once they saw her hit, they’d ask who she was played for, and the answer was always the same:

Myself.

It was the same deal in college; denied entry on the baseball team, Justina found herself at the cages, again with the same questions being asked. She found acceptance on the UW-Milwaukee intramural baseball team, which is where she met Quinn Braxton.

“But anyway, it’s awesome that you girls are playing ball. Always thought Milwaukee would get a WNBA team before a women’s baseball team, but hey, whatever.”

Justina’s phone buzzes again, and her head jerks from the polite smiling to her lap.

LV: You ready to make history??????

The Uber rounds the corner of Water Street. A couple of the girls are already on the corner, punching each other’s shoulders and acting like the inseparable group this team really was. Bridget McAfee. Quinn Braxton. CJ Willis. Maddie McCarthy.

Her sisters in arms, runs, hits, and errors. She’d miss them, yes, but there was a whole other frontier to explore, and she was just learning what exactly she was capable of.

Hell yes, Justina types, and immediately hits send.

BRAXTON

Last season’s Defensive Player of the Year, (with a 13-vote-margin) Quinn Braxton punches pitcher Maddie McCarthy in the arm for making the twelfth deez nuts joke in the course of ten minutes. Quinn messes with her equilibrium and Maddie nearly falls over.

“Fuck, Quinn, I’ll stop,” she says, laughing, grabbing onto a parking meter. It feels like they haven’t been apart for a month. It feels like no one’s ever left Milwaukee.

Before anything else can transpire, Justina Jenkins gets out of the backseat of what might be an Uber or Lyft Cadillac Escalade, dripping from head to toe as usual, sneaking a few salon appointments in between the last out of the Women’s World Series and this meeting. Her second or third Balenciaga bag rests on her right arm.

Willis snorts a bit. “We put the reservation in under your name, that okay? It’s $10 a minute for every minute you’re late.”

“Hi mom,” Quinn says, shoving her hands into her Nordstrom Rack camo jeans.

“Hello, darling,” Justina replies. She looks at her three teammates. “Well? I didn’t mean to interrupt what y’all were doing?”

“You’re never interrupting,” McAfee comes rushing towards Justina, crushing her in a giant hug. She smells distinctly like fabric softener and dry shampoo. McAfee is 6’1” barefoot and gives some of the best embraces in all of baseball. Willis and McCarthy follow suit, and before everyone knows it, the Belles superstar outfielder and team captain is wrapped in a crushing hug.

Quinn stands, pretending to be annoyed, arms folded and rolls her eyes. “Like y’all ain’t hug enough during the damn season.”

Justina pushes the other girls away and pulls Quinn into her own personal hug. “Bitch,” she says.

Quinn holds her at arm’s length away. “No Cabo for you, slugger? If it were up to me, my ass would be out of….here.”

It’s not that Quinn hates Milwaukee. She’s actually grown to love it. She grew up here, not far away in a modest home with her mom and twin brother Quincy, off National Avenue.

Quinn and Quincy both played on the high school baseball team, until he had a seizure and died right there in the gymnasium of their high school, in the middle of a warm up before practice. Heart failure, they said. Quinn had heart surgery as a child due to arrhythmia, only to see her brother’s own heart fail right in front of her.

It was too much for Quinn; even with the support from coaches and incessant counseling, she eventually resigned from the team. She didn’t dare pick up a baseball bat again until she met Justina Jenkins whom she met in an Early American Literature class at UW-Milwaukee, three years later.

Justina noticed the Ken Griffey Jr. Trapper Keeper Quinn must have found on eBay, because it was in perfect condition, and no one their age even knew what the hell a Trapper Keeper was. And she struck up a conversation, and their friendship blossomed over a mutual love of baseball. Justina grew up watching the Brewers and Quinn grew up watching the Braves, who used to be a Milwaukee team, and yeah yeah, Quinn was well aware of that and loved Hank Aaron and Chipper Jones and even Brandon McCarthy. Justina rued the year 2011 like no other but will recall it as one of the most enthralling in Brewers history, and was ambivalent when Craig Counsell took the helm as manager, but she’s grown to like him.

Quinn enjoyed her baseball chats with Justina, but never imagined playing by her side until she mentioned being thrown off a little league team and the inevitable “wait, you play too?” exchange happened.

You wanna toss a ball after class? Justina asked her one fateful day. I don’t have a glove, Quinn answered. They were all in storage or packed away where she could never reach them, not long after Quincy’s passing. Gotcha covered. I brought one for you, Justina replied. So we throwing or what?

“Nah, where else can I hang with ladies as fine as this?” Justina was always inclusive, inspiring, iridescent.

If Justina ever had a bad day, Quinn didn’t know about it. Quinn did, however, know how quickly they both loved baseball and shared a commonality in that the sport they loved so much never seemed to love them back. When throwing the ball around after class wasn’t enough anymore, they were rejected from trying out for rec leagues, often told apologetically that they had no more open spots, met by the questioning glances of men who probably wore business suits in the daytime.

Then the Milwaukee Belles announced open tryouts, and nothing could have made Quinn happier when they both made the roster.

They also met a few other people who’d develop into the best friends and teammates she could ask for: Bridge, a young mom of three who was part Amazon part golden retriever; Valenzuela, a skittish, deceptively strong olive-skinned girl from Texas with a wicked left hand delivery; Robles, a fearless, rough round the edges pitcher drafted from the Mexican leagues who had experience pitching to men, and Muramoto, a deeply heralded Japanese baseball legend, who had an enthusiastic and ever growing fanbase at every game.

“What’s Mel up to today?” Justina asks. “She browsing the rumor mill?”

“Funny you should ask. She thinks this emergency meeting is news that we signed Hamasaki, who posted for draft last season but she didn’t like any of the offers she got. Must be nice being the top ranked female baseball player in the world.”

“Should be the top ranked baseball player in the world if we’re being honest,” CJ says. “I’d hold out for a nice contract, especially if it means I’d have to move outta Japan.”

Quinn remembers her hands shaking as she signed her contract with the team, and not seeing that much money before in her life. Not long ago she moved into a sunny converted-loft convo in Walker’s Point with her girlfriend, Melia, a lifelong baseball fan who especially loves Korean and Japanese ball.

Melia’s job is painting watercolor portraits of people’s pets, but the paintings she does at home for fun are always Quinn playing baseball. Melia once used Quinn’s roster photo as a reference and the portrait hangs awkwardly in their bathroom, right above the toilet. Quinn doesn’t have the heart to tell Melia that it really doesn’t belong there. It’s what she has to look forward to after every road trip.

The neighborhood is vibrant and welcoming and fun and all full of enough life to sustain a professional athlete and an artist, and on game days, Mel and Quinn wake up early, but stay in bed, giggling and staying warm on those early April mornings and sharing whatever is on each other’s mind, until Quinn really has to leave for the ballpark.

Before signing with the Belles, Quinn had never been to any of the cities the Women’s League is in, not counting Chicago, where her mom decided to settle off with a boyfriend she met off some dating site. They still see each other and get lunch here and then; Quinn leaves tickets for her at every visiting game in Chicago but never sees her mom in the stands.

Valenzuela, bless her heart, would always try to distract Quinn when she’d notice her looking at the seats. “You know I might need to throw at you with runners on if you’re covering, right?” She’d say in the dugout between innings, followed by a gentle hug.

Chicago might be her least favorite city to play in, but she still looks at the seats before every at-bat, to see if someone may be in them.

On days when Quinn is especially bad, she expects to see Quincy, yelling at her to pay attention to who’s on second.

But the seats are always empty.

She knows her father lives in Atlanta and she has branches upon branches of cousins sprouting all through the South but she’s never thought about reaching out. She knows she probably shouldn’t for a few reasons.

Quinn is the kind of shortstop that does not know what hesitation is. She goes for what she wants without thinking, almost reflexively. She sees line drives and her glove raises instinctually.

There is no time better than now, and this has always been her motto. It’s gotten her this far in life.

Her future is already written. There will be empty seats in visiting stadiums and blowout games and maybe a defensive error or two, but this is all part of the plan.

The plan is to be the greatest there ever was.

It’s the most she can give Quincy.

He is certainly worth it.

“So we going inside to meet, eat, or both?” It’s Valenzuela, late to the party as usual, wearing a slick black bomber jacket with a rose gold tiger embroidered on the chest.

The rest of the girls fall around her, and with the clouds and fog, they seem like a badass girl gang set on world domination, and once again, the Milwaukee Belles are together again.

#windup and the pitch #this story started as a half baked idea and it's fuckin nuts now #anyway if you actually read this i am very open to feedback!!#hope you liked meeting justina and quinn - they're great #let's go go milwaukee belles

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printmakersopenforum · 6 years ago

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PrintCamp2019 Session Two Shop Assistant

ALLISON ROSH

WEBSITE:

www.allisonhrosh.com

ABOUT HER WORK:

The surface of the body acts as a barrier between our internal and external selves exposing the vulnerabilities between mind and body. As fragile and receptive beings, the past builds up and manifests itself through our daily actions and repetitive tendencies. Constant awareness of our physical forms and emotional states are visually impressed upon us. There is a strong desire to control our appearance and physical signs of well-being. The length one will go, to appear well and put together intrigues me. These preconceived expectations of self, become overwhelming, and the focus of our obsessive dwelling.

The presence of the body is suggested in these pieces, through various processes that reflect healing and destructive patterns. Veiled pieces are mended meticulously by hand, creating another skin. Etched impressions on copper are abstracted and deteriorated. Surfaces are abraded; etched; mended, and covered. These act to highlight the subtle and startling effects of our physical movements, mental states, and overall health.

RESUME

EDUCATION

2016 MFA University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Major: Printmaking, Minor: Drawing

2015 MA, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Major: Printmaking, Minor: Drawing

2013 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH

Major: Two Dimensional Studies

TEACHING

Present – 2018 Adjunct Instructor, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH

Introduction to Lithography, Introduction to Intaglio

2016 Adjunct Instructor, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY

Adjunct Instructor - Art Appreciation for Non-Majors – School Based Scholars Program, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY

2016 Teaching Assistant – Instructor of Record, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

2015 Teaching Assistant – Instructor of Record, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Introduction to Printmaking: Fall 2015

Print processes covered: Stone Lithography and Silkscreen.

Teaching Assistant - General Education Course - Creativity for a Lifetime

Co-taught by Anita Jung, Clar Baldus, and Matthew Gilcrest, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Teaching Assistant - Summer Intensive Foil Imaging Workshop, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Present - 2016 Social Media Coordinator, Mid America Print Council (MAPC)

2016 Curator for the Virginia A. Myers Memorial Exhibition, Levitt Gallery, Iowa City, IA

2015 Intern at the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Iowa Print Group Archive Community Outreach - University of Iowa Mobile Museum, Iowa City, IA

2014-2015 Co-founder of Iowa Print Group, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Mud Stencil Workshop, Creative Time Summit, Iowa City, IA

Curator of Friends Under Pressure, Printmaking Department Exchange and exhibition, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Printmaking Studio Monitor, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

2013 Relief Demonstration, University of Iowa History of Print Class, Iowa City, IA

Iowa City Press Co-op, Iowa City, IA

2015 Pronto Plate Lithography Workshop, Zenzic Press, Iowa City, IA

2014 Monotype and Watercolor Monoprint Workshop, Zenzic Press, Iowa City, IA

EXHIBITIONS

Solo Exhibitions

2016 Embodied Response, Levitt Gallery, Art Building West, Iowa City, IA

Reveal /Conceal, Medical Museum, University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, Iowa City, IA

2015 From the Outside, In, Kendall Gallery, Iowa Memorial Union, Iowa City, IA

Emergence, Printmaking Staging Space, Iowa City, IA

JURIED AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019 /just to be alive/1628 ltd Cincinnati, OH

2018 Women, Memory, and Psychological Scapes Portfolio, Travelling exhibition

IMPACT 10, Universidad de Cantibria, Santander, Spain

Grenfell Art Gallery, Corner Brook, Newfoundland

Unframed, Tiger Lily Press Members show, Covington, KY

California College of the Arts, Blattner Studio Gallery, Oakland, CA

Southern Graphics Council International, Las Vegas, NV

Bodies Under Pressure, Kimura Gallery, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK

9th International Printmaking Biennale Douro, Alijo, Portugal

2017 The Contemporary Print, 02 Gallery/PrintAustin, Austin, TX

Global Print 3, Coa Museum, Alijo, Portugal

Star-Crossed Lovers, Morissey Gallery, St. Ambrose University, Davenport, IA

25th Parkside National Small Print Exhibition, UW-Parkside Gallery, Kenosha, WI

FE17: Full and Part-Time Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition, Highland Heights, KY

2016 Of Rules and Rebellion, Schneider Hall, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY

Awkward Portal, Public Space One, Iowa City, IA

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2016 “Changing Light: A New Visual Language”, Virginia A.Myers, Pg. 99-100

“In the Foil of Life”, daily-iowan.com, August

“The Daily Palette”, dailypalette.uiowa.edu, February and May

2015 “The Magnolia Review”, Issue 2, Pg. 62, July

#printmaking #printmakers open forum #printcamp2019 #printshopsanctuary #printcampsanctuary #allison rosh

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