Theatre Reviews: Twelfth Night

Howdy Y'all!

I know most of my reading base in is Minnesota and very few will have an opportunity to see the play I am reviewing today, but I decided to write something up nonetheless. As I have talked about before on this blog, this blog is more about forcing me to grow as an artist and a critic. I thought this exercise would be a good one.  I hope you stay and read it, because a lot of this blog will be questioning the relevance of Shakespeare instead of critiquing the performance.


APT

Before we begin I thought it is important to put APT (American Players Theatre) into context for reader's not familiar with who they are and the impact they have had on my life. APT is one of Wisconsin art scene's crown jewel. For decades now they have been producing Broadway quality Shakespeare for southern Wisconsin (the theater is conveniently located halfway between Milwaukee and Chicago and 40 minutes outside of Madison).

Although this is a company that perfects the classical style, there is nothing traditionally about their stage space (well actually if I wanted to get very theater historical it is the MOST traditional theater). Their space is located in Spring Green, Wisconsin right in the middle of nowhere. The theater is completely outdoors in the beautiful woods.

The House (where the audience sits) is situated on a natural hill. Well it started out as wooden benches and grass today they are the best seats in the industry while also fully waterproofed. The house boasts approx. an 1100 seat audience, and it fills that pretty much all summer (Just to put things into context I saw 12th night on a Tuesday night with crappy weather and the threat of rain and there were still 750 people). The Stage itself is a thrust stage with a bridge that goes right out into the audience.

I have been going to this theater since I was a little boy. APT was incredibly monumental in my passion for Shakespeare, the arts, and fueled my own desire to perform onstage for the rest of my life. While in high school I attended three years of "Fine Arts Weekend," a program where high school students spend the weekend at APT, see three shows, workshop and party with the actors, and get a full tour of APT's facilities. I've learned a lot from APT over the years and I thought it was important to start this blog paying them some dues. If you love theater as much as I do I strongly recommend you make it out to Wisconsin someday and see one of their shows. Without further adieu lets review!(Dr. Seuss points scored!)


Twelfth Night

For those of you unfamiliar with this Shakespeare Play here is the skinny. So Viola and Sebastian, twin siblings, get shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria. They are separated and each presumes the other is dead. Viola having little money and no kingdom decides to dress as a man named Cesario. Cesario becomes counsel to the noblemen Orsino. Orsino is in love with Olvia, but she won't take his courting.

Viola get sent to court Olivia in Orsino's place. Olivia falls in love with Viola (who is still Cesario), but Viola really loves Orsino who thinks she is a man. these love quadtrangles really break down when Sebastian comes to Illyria and everyone thinks he is Cesario (Viola). Viola's cover is blown, Viola marries Orsino and Sebastian marries Olivia and everyone lives happily ever after. The end!

Sound a lot like many other Shakespeare plays? We will get to that but the review first:

What I liked:

• The costumes as always with APT were truly stunning. In my opinion APT's costumes are the closest to the extravagance and beauty they had in Shakespeare's time. 
• Feste (John Taylor Phillips) was by far the funniest and most entertaining person to watch on stage. I found my eye wandering to his side work away from the focus of the space just because his reactions were priceless.

• Sir Toby (Brian Mani) was incredibly clever and had impeccable timing. Toby what the comics world would call a meddler (like Loki in The Avengers). Watching him scheme and watching his control unravel was a joy.

• Viola (Christina Panfilio) might deserve the rookie of the year award for APT's season. Her performance in this show keeps things fresh and keeps me engaged. Its great how she doesn't fall into too frequent gender cliches of cross dressing characters

• Malvolio (La Shawn Banks) might have stolen the show with an inspired physical performance and creative voice work.

What I didn't like:

• The musical interludes started to grind my gears after awhile. One or two? Fine. But with each act over an hour long as it is let's not drag this out.
• Orisino (Marcus Truschinski) might have been the blandest performance from Truschinski I have ever seen. I was blown away by Truschinski's Puck in APT's modernization of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Since then I have been an avid fan girl. This performance while competent, left me wanting so much more.

• The set was bland. Now I know APT might have been going for a more traditional Shakespearean style in regards to set and props, but it was nonetheless disappointing to say the least.
• The entire Sebastian subplot was hack work. Now most of this is probably the writing, but I want there to be greater purpose to Sebastion and Antonio. I never got a real sense of danger with Antonio being an outlaw. I never got a sense of wonder with Sebastian coming back from the dead.

• At over two hours this show draaaaaaaggged. I like to think If the whole cast has brought the energy that Mr. Banks did to Malvolio the show would have clipped along smoothly. With the increased tempo the jokes might have worked better.
• As clever as Shakespeare's writing is a lot of the jokes fall flat. I have been to APT shows of Shakespeare plays where I have hurt myself from laughing so hard. So the source material isn't the problem. I would attribute it to bad timing, and a lesser Shakespeare script.

Relevance



I believe anytime a director starts the process of bringing a play to light they need to be able to answer the question: Why now? They need to communicate to the audience why this story, these themes, these characters needs to be showcased today. Theatre is current, on topic, and a current temperature reading for our society.

This was a question that was going through my mind as I watch this play. I continued to ponder this question many days later as I thought of it in the context of Shakespeare's comedies. We all know the lazy plot devices that are repeated over and over again in his comedies:

• Shipwrecks
• Twins
• Twin confusion
• Presumed death
• Characters plotting against nobles for entertainment
• And of coarse a brilliant Deus Ex Machine right at the end that results in:
• Meddlers getting punished
• All young couples paring up and getting married
• Families being reunited
• ect. ect. ect.

So why is Shakespeare put on such a pedestal of Artistic godliness? Today when we watch our sitcoms and see them use their same bag of tricks again and again we call bullshit.
e.g.

But because Shakespeare's name is on the script and he wrote Hamlet, Macbeth, and other masterworks that have definite the industry, Willie gets a pass. So I end this blog post with and question. Should all of Shakespeare's comedies be held in the same Pantheon as Hamlet or Macbeth? Or should we acknowledge that while he wrote masterworks, he like every other starving artist did work for the paychecks like everyone else.

Thanks you my loyal fans "We few we happy few!"

Will

Top 100 Films

So I've been thinking about doing this for awhile. I have always wanted to know what films I considered the best in my library.  Before I jump in  and drop the list though I do want to qualify it a little just so every one is on the same page with me.

• I have an upcoming list of the top 100 Film Classics I haven't seen or need to revisit. Obviously, ALL those movies are disqualified from my list and next year when I have finished my list of movies I need to see some of those will be added to it. 
• It was only a year ago I became critically interested in  films. I hope this list dramatically changes every year as I become more immersed and educated in the study of film
• I believe in stakes and context. Lists aren't interesting unless we give them stakes. So the stakes of this list is: if every film in the history of the art form was destroyed and I could only save 100 theses are the 100 I would save and in the order of importance. I'm not saying these are the 100 greatest films of all time. I am saying these are the 100 most important films to me as someone fascinated in the art form of film
• In the coming days and weeks I will write a paragraph of WHY these moving are so important. I considered lots of things while making this list:
• Nostalgia
• Importance in cinematic history
• Quality of the Film
• Acting
• Directing
• Writing
• Entertainment Factor (still haven't made it through Lawrence of Arabia or Ten Commandments acting and directing aside they are soooooooo boring)
• Popularity- Is this movie present on other top 100 list? Was it commercially successful? Does that matter?
• Relevance to the time it was released. Citizen Kane if it were released today as is would be garbage but for the time it was a tremendously good and important film
• Things I do not feel qualified to assess or comment on:
• cinematography 
• lighting
• editing
• Foreign Films
• Westerns
• War Movies

All of that qualifying aside in the coming days and weeks I will have blogs dedicated to why I think each movie is important and why it is where it is. I also will have that Upcoming Top 100 movies I need to see. Submissions for ideas on films I need to see are greatly appreciated. Without further adieu let's look at my Top 100 films:

1.   It’s a Wonderful Life
2.  .  When Harry Met Sally
3.      .       Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
   4.     2001: A Space Odyssey
   5.     Tree of Life
   6.     Howl’s Moving Castle
   7.     To Kill a Mockingbird
   8.     Hot Fuzz
   9.     Memento
   10. Fight Club
   11. The Shinning
   12. Revolutionary Road
   13. Network
   14. Annie Hall
   15. A Beautiful Mind
   16. American History X
   17. Wizard of Oz
   18. Dog Day Afternoon
   19. Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
   20. Pulp Fiction
   21. Donnie Darko
   22. Death of a Salesman
   23. The Social Network
   24. Dr. Strangelove
   25. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
   26. Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
   27. Adaptation
   28. Fantasia
   29. Shawshank Redemption
   30. The Matrix
   31. Brokeback Mountain
   32. Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan
   33. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
   34. Airplane!
   35. Raiders of the Lost Arc
   36. Lion King
   37. Wall-E
   38. Moon
   39. Cabaret
   40. Michael Clayton
   41. Shame
   42. Dances with Wolves
   43. Good Will Hunting
   44. Blade Runner
   45. Chicago
   46. The Departed
   47. Walk the Line
   48. Hunt for Red October
   49. A Man for All Seasons
   50. Fiddler on the Room
   51. The Iron Giant
   52. E.T.
   53. Trainspotting
   54. Wall Street
   55. Winter’s Bone
   56. Groundhog Day
   57. The Blues Brothers
   58. Lost in Translation
   59. Scream
   60. The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas
   61. Back to the Future
   62. Milk
   63. Syriana
   64. Die Hard
   65. Death at a Funeral
   66. The Hurt Locker
   67. (500) Days of Summer
   68. Frost/ Nixon
   69. Jaws
   70. Rain Man
   71. Spirited Away
   72. Dead Poet Society
   73. Big Fish
   74. Pan’s Labyrinth
   75. A Few Good Men
   76. Exorcist
   77. In the Loop
   78. Bourne Ultimatum
   79. Some Like it Hot
   80. The Life of Brian
   81. History of the World Part 1
   82. Black Swan
   83. V For Vendetta
   84. The Good Shepard
   85. Inception
   86. JFK
   87. October Sky
   88. Thirteen Days
   89. Brothers
   90. Benny and Joon
   91. Pineapples Express
   92. Silence of the Lambs
   93. Thank You For Smoking
   94. The Dark Knight
   95. The Secret of NIMH
   96. Toy Story & Toy Story 3
   97. Edward Scissorhands
   98. Fail Safe
   99. Babe
   100.     Joyeux Noel

Day 26: The Dark Knight Rises

Welcome Back


Hello everyone! It has been a busy summer, but I am ending my hiatus and getting back to doing what I love and forcing myself to grow as a writer, thinker, and artist. I will have a future post about the things I have been up to this summer, but right now I would like to jump right into my thoughts about The Dark Knight Rises. I just got out of the midnight premiere and I want to write this before I talked to anyone else. I had a very strong reaction to this film and I want to get my thoughts out now. I am writing this mainly stream of consciousness so bear with me I will attempt to organize my thoughts as coherently as I possibly can after an almost 3 hour movie and a 11 hour day of work.  But first we need to qualify everything I am going to say.


My History with Mr. Nolan and his Batman Franchise


I can already tell where this movie is landing with the general reactions of this film. I was in the theater I watched the twitters and the facebooks explode. I didn't have anywhere close to the same reaction,  but in an attempt to not have everyone tune me out I want to explain where I was on Nolan and Batman going into this movie.


I have been an advocate and defender of Chris Nolan for many years now. I think he has released incredible work and consistently manages to release work that is commercially successful, but also challenges its audiences. When Nolan's name is in the credits I feel confident that I am going to get something more than your average run-of-the-mill summer popcorn movie (NOT that there is anything wrong with those. I've seen Avengers twice now and loved it even more the second time).  I also think that through the years Nolan has received unfair levels of scrutiny and his films have been nitpicked to death by the cinefile community (admittedly a minority of the film consuming audience).


I have felt like there is this unwritten rule in Hollywood. Option A is making work that challenges it audiences and gets critically rewarded, but dies in the obscurity that is the indie and small budget film circuits (e.g. Tree of Life or Coriolanus which are both films criminally under seen). Option B is releasing massive budget blockbuster movies that are cash cows for the studios. The price an artist pays for this of  coarse is creating the least controversial fluff possible that acts as escapism at best (e.g. The Avengers or Hunger Games). Nolan's movies, especially Memento, The Dark Knight, and Inception have managed to bridge a gap and have massive budgets and massive box office success while delivering the audience with something more (in theory).


The massive popularity of these movies make the cinefiles nuts. Michael Bay movies do 300 million at the box office. How can Inception be as visionary, groundbreaking, and challenging as everyone thinks it is if its massively popular? And so the cinefiles start to nitpick the shit out of Nolan holding him to a level of scrutiny that directors like Steven Soderbergh or David Fincher aren't held to, even when they release movies like Magic Mike or Girl With the Dragon Tattoo respectively.


I have defended Nolan over the years. Is the Dark Knight or Inception the greatest movie ever made? No there are flaws and problems with both, but they are great movies. I would take movies with these kind of vision and ambition over Hollywood popcorn any day.


Also less professionally I am a HUGE comic book nerd and a HUGE Batman fan. So now that you know I went into this film being a Nolan Defender and Batman fanboy the gloves need to come off. I need to say my piece and make an appeal to the more reasonable and logical part of your brain as you digest this movie.




*Spoilers*


(^ you were warned no fanboy rage cause I ruined the movie. Also don't read reviews before you see movies you are passionate about.)




The Dark Knight Rises

Let me start this review with explaining why the Batman predecessor worked so well for me. It really boils down to four major things:

• Realism- Nolan worked hard to make it clear these movies are meant to be taken as realistically as possible. The universe he sets his franchise in operates with the same rules as our own universe. It is in some ways a rejection of the superhero genre. Unlike in comic books, characters die. Violence is earned and felt as opposed to WHAM and BOW and sassy one-liners. Villains though extreme are believable. They don't have super powers. Batman's gear while heightened isn't far from what we have.
• Characters- the characters in these movies are well developed. Characters like Lucius Fox though having little screen time are three dimension. 
• pseudo rejection of CGI and 3D madness- Most of the action in these movies is shot for real. That semi scene in Dark Knight is so powerful because it is a real semi. Batman throws real punches and hits real people. Instead of Web-slinging around green screens and punching CGI'ed giant lizards.
• The question of morality- these movies stop and ponder what kind of person throw on a costume and decides the take the law in their own hands. Actions have REAL consequences. Batman's choices result in an entire section of a city getting gassed with a permanently mind altering drug. It also results in people dying including the love of his life. Unlike Thor who levels a small town with no recourse or Spiderman whose superhero hobby results in hurting his school work, job, and girlfriends. When Mary Jane gets tossed off a bridge we KNOW she will make it. When Rachel and Harvey gets strapped to bombs we don't know if they will (spoilers they don't). 

And now why the Dark Knight rises was not any of that....

The soul of Gotham

This whole trilogy is suppose to chronicle the Batman's struggle for a city in desperate need of saving. This film opens with victory. If we have won and the city is safe then why do we have a movie? It is ridiculous as an inspirational Sports movie about a team that has everything, is the best, and has no way to improve. There is no conflict if Gotham's soul is won. The next turn is completely unbelievable. Bane blows up two buildings and then gives a speech and then the whole city pretty much agrees to overthrow any sense of rule of law. If Gotham was won the authorities should be able to handle Bane's threat. 

The movie ends with Batman swooping and saving the day at the sacrificing of his own life (just kidding... but I'll get to that). From there it is hard to see how Gotham can be saved. The masses overthrew the ruling class and elected a system of anarchy maintained through violence and intimidation. But after Batman saves the day, Nolan just kind of sweeps the whole movie under a rug and Gotham's order and rule of law is restored. If the city's soul is a character then why it's arch in this movie is a circle and no one learned anything. The next time a terrorist attacks Gotham the city will be in shambles again and Batman will need to reteach it the same lesson. 

The Bomb and other Suspension of disbelief issues

In the Dark Knight there was a high level of chaos. The Joker had a  master plan and was always several steps ahead of the law enforcement. But we saw a response of the law enforcement and they seemed to being acting in a reasonable manner with logically choices even though the joker was ahead of them the whole time. They responded to a terrorist how our society would.

Bane gets to a place where he is basically holding the city hostage  with a bomb that is basically an atomic bomb. If anyone tries to interfere with Gotham or leaves the whole cities goes up in flames, but even if  everyone follows the rules and let the oppressed oppress people... everyone goes? 1) It is a no-win situation where is the moral complexity or angle? 2) More importantly where is the state government? or the federal government? NATO? UN? SHIELD?  An international terrorist takes hostage one of America's largest cities with a nuclear bomb and the global community's response is: fuck it let the nut job in the Bat costume handle this shit. 

Another major point in the movie where my suspension of disbelief hit Transformers levels (yes I went there) was Bane's instant rise to power. The movie dwells on the fact that Gotham is won. There is no organized crime left. And yet Bane blows up TWO buildings and then the entire law enforcement branch falls in line and elected officials submit their power. Again all while the global community does nothing.

There was also a heist that kind of happened that didn't happen. Bane kind of used Wayne's fingerprints  to hack the Gotham Stock Exchange (strikingly similar to the NY stock exchange) and bet big on futures that don't come through. Which would in theory destroy Wayne enterprises which is also apparently bankrupt because they sunk ALL funds into one energy project and then Bruce refused to green light the final product. You know like GM put all its resources into  building a hydro-electric car and gets a prototype and then says never mind and does nothing. I know Bruce Wayne is supposed to be negligent but there is an entire board of directors that does nothing? Giant commodity's future scandal and the bankrupting of a multinational S & P 500 company and the global financial communities' response is... Nothing?

Ok back to the bomb.  Batman takes the atomic bomb out of the city about a mile into the ocean that didn't exist in the last movie and then it explodes. I'm no expert on atomic weaponry, but I know enough to know that the distance he got it out of the city in time would have still leveled the city. He also somehow SURVIVES a nuclear explosion? You know like Indiana Jones! I guess the Batwing had a refrigerator he could hide in. 

Finally Bruce Wayne himself. He opens the movie with a limp and cane (no explanation). Later he goes to the doctor who tells him he has no cartilage between his bones from all of the massive beatings I guess. Now this happened to my grandpa. He literally has worked all of the cartilage out of his knee joint and could barely walk until  he got surgery. Wayne puts on knee brace and can then fight and be Batman... ok. Then Batman gets his back broken and then thrown down a well that is as deep as skyscraper (with a broken back) and he survives. He gets his back fixed by a monk punching a vertebrae and he trains and he is back to normal... again. 

Any sense of realism of the first two movies is completely gone in this film. 

Let me go through Character quick fire

• Bruce Wayne- socially a hermit and then not. He goes through the same arc and learning curve of the first movie. 
• Catwomen- She is in this movie as an after thought. Her plotline go nowhere and she is in this movie to where sexy leather, kick ass, and act as a love interest in the finale because Nolan murdered Rachel. Props to Anne Hathaway though best Catwoman even with very limit writing and screen time
• Lucius Fox- Why are you in this movie? 
• Albert- You get mad at Bruce and say you're done and you cannot handle burying Wayne. Then you bury him and cry (an overact) a lot. But then it is all undone cause Wayne is alive healthy and gets a happily ever after.
• Joseph Gordan Levitt Character- This character just got shit. He ran around the whole movie acting as one of the only people trying to do his job as a cop and the entire time had superiors step on him and condescended. He also  got equal screen time to Batman (the title character) even though it was all about setting up the new Batman for the next franchise (studio goes caching caching). It also made no sense how or why he knew who Batman was. NO sense. 
• Bane- annoy voice kind of hard to understand. I missed the joker a lot. Not just for the performance but for the actual master plan and the fun.
• Marion Cotillard- This character was the least believable and had one of the worse death scenes I have seen in a movie in a long time. 

I think why this movie is being so well received is the scale of the action is unbelievable. Nolan sacrificed writing and character development for mindless explosions. Because this movie is so long and the last act of it is nothing but action people get lost in it and the plot points  move so fast and the editing moves rapidly that there is not time to stop and think about.... well anything really. To fair a lot of the action is breathtaking and could not be done by another director. I'm pretty sure the studio gave Nolan a blank signed check for the budget of this movie. 

So if you love the Batman movies for the explosions and action scenes and you just love Batman go see this movie. If you followed these films because they are smart and clever and maybe made you think a little prepared to be let down. 

As always I encourage and want discussion. These are my views and opinions and a dialogue can help me find the weak points of my arguments and even change my opinions on things I got wrong. Look for more content soon.

The Dark knight Rises ended up being the film the studios needed not the film the fans deserved

Will

PS: Totally called Joseph Gorden Levitt being Robin. Everyone said I was wrong. I win!

SUMMER!

So I have realized that I cannot dedicate the time I need to keep this blog at the level I want it to be at. With two jobs and a play there is just no time. I apologize profusely to my very dedicated readers and promise that this fall and I will do this bigger and better than ever.

love you all!

Will

Day 25: Back Working World, Walker Lies...again, and the Crimes of the Restaurant Industry

Back to the Working World

So I have two jobs this summer. I work at an accounting firm where I basically push paper all day long. Its a job I feel like a sixth grader could do, but they pay me very well and I am very grateful to have the job. My second job is at a local family Restaurant where I wait tables and help out in the kitchen. after two weeks of work I have come to three life revelations:

1) I cannot spend my life in a cubicle

A lot of people work hard in college. They get good grades they work for their bachelors degree maybe they go to grad school, maybe they just enter the work force. They marry, have kids, place a down payment on a house and start a family. It is the American dream. They hopefully act responsibly save enough for retirement and hopefully a little extra to get their children through college. Though this is a fulfilling route for most (and no disrespect to those at all who pursue it) I realized it is not the path for me.

As I sit in my cubicle doing my work and my mind wanders I start to think: what if I had to do this for a year. Two Year? What about of an entire lifetime? A lifetime of pushing paper for other important partners helping the very wealthy and companies pay little to no taxes. Where is the fulfillment in that? Where is the satisfaction?

I have worked this job for about there summers now and I have come to realize that I hate working in a cubicle. First it is way too claustrophobic. There is little to know sunlight, and I am completely isolated from all human contact (other than the small jaunt to the water cooler or the bathroom). This maybe the path for some people, but frankly if I spent my life in a cubicle I might just breakdown one day and do this:

2) Madison's economy has taken a dramatic hit

Working at a pretty mid level restaurant I get a pretty good gauge of where people's spending is at. In good times the restaurant is packed and people are willing to buy big and leave nice tips (which is almost my entire income but I will get to that in a bit). Now I have only been back in the restaurant the past two weeks and the season is still early (my restaurant is primarily outside food service so weather does effect attendance). That being said there are significantly fewer people going out to eat.

Business is very slow, even on night where it should be jammed packed. I worked Sunday brunch this morning which is a always a huge seller and we were severely understaffed. We were waiting for the impending doom of the morning rush coming and the few servers running around like chickens with their heads cut off, but the rush never came.

Now when we suffered total collapse of the economy back in late 2008 Madison was doing better than most  areas of the country. Why was Madison protected and why has it now fallen in harder times? The answers to both those questions is public-sector unions. With all of the school districts, government agencies, UW hospital, and the University of Wisconsin all in Dane county a fairly large percentage of our market have union contracts.

Now I'm not here to start a political fight of whether what has happened to public unions in my state is right, at this point that is for the voters to decide at the polls on Tuesday June 5th (PLEASE GO VOTE WISCONSINITES!!). Instead I am just sharing my observations:

• When the economy got hit hard the unions help keep Madison afloat 
• Now that the unions are under attack it seems like the whole boat is sinking.

Food for thought...

3) I am very lucky to have just not just one job but two.

Several of my friends are home from college and now looking for employment. They have student loans to be concerned with or are trying to avoid them. What they are finding though more and more is there are no jobs. Seasonal jobs that were always covered by college and high schools students are being now being filled by parents trying to pick up part time jobs to just get by.

I will share a few stories just to give you an idea how what the job market is like. I am changing names to protect identities of my friends but their story is what is important.

My friend Ted worked at a prominent clothing store for three years. He was very proud to get his three year pin last summer when they thanked him for all his service. Ted went out of state for college and therefore did not continue working at this clothing outlet. He left with the assumption and security of knowing he would have a job when he got back next summer. Ted got home and went in to give the store his availability. They then informed him that since he has not worked for so long that he would have to be retrained. Since he is only home for three months the only 8 hours of training weren't worth it and he was fired. How is that for loyalty? Three years and a spotless record and Ted is told he is a liability.

My Friend  Robin dropped out of school this semester. Since she decided to take a break she decided she needed to save up some money so she has assets when she wants to go back to school. She spent a month unemployed. She filled out 40 job Applications, ans visited the employment pool several times. She was dodged for interviews left and right, lead on and then rejected. Robin finally got a job at a coffee factory, but with tuition hikes and cost of living for Minneapolis going up she realizes she probably needs another job to get back on track and get back to school. The search has started again and it is just as unfruitful as before.

My Friend Lilly is a great student. She is double majoring in global studies and economics. She went to one of the best public high schools in the country and in college she took on heavy loads both semesters and pulled off an impeccable GPA. There is no reason anywhere wouldn't be thrilled about hiring her. And yet she got home to find nobody wants her. She has filled out approx. 30 job application and only gotten two interviews. She even applied to Chick Fillet... and was rejected (quite demoralizing when even Chick Fillet doesn't want you). She might spend the whole summer on Pottermore now because nobody wants to hire a college kid for three months when there are plenty of laid off adults willing to work to just get by.

I have several other stories like these and I hope they ring true to you. I think everybody know someone that is looking for work. This just goes to show that the recovery Obama promised never happened. Unemployment even roused this past month even as Obama has been slowly chipping away at it month after month. We need a massive stimulus bill to get the economy going again. It should be real domestic spending for average working-class people. The corporations and the rich got their tax breaks and the results are in. The jobs supply side economics were suppose to delivery never happened. Lets put these signs to real use:

Walker Lies again

I am not going to go on another Anti- Scott Walker rant again (If you want to read that go here.) Like I said people's minds are made up and it is time to see what happens at the polls on Tuesday, There was a news update that was just too important to let slide.

Scott Walker has been running one of the ugliest smear campaigns against Tom Barrett in Wisconsin state history. Watch this ad and Barret's response:

Now the quote he used is from a criminology professor. The quote makes Barrett look especially bad... too bad the professor was never talking about Mayor Tom Barrett. The professor held a press conference late this week where he said basically that Walker was misusing his quote and that Mayor Tom Barrett has no control over whether the Milwaukee police department is corrupting their crime statistics. I will end with this bombshell quote from Barrett on Thursday nights debate.

"I have a police department that arrested felons you have a habit of hiring them!"


Peace and Love,

Will


Expect a reaction post to the election Wednesday. Also Thank you all for your continued readership and support. If you like what I am doing here you can do three things to help:

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