by Noah Phillips

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RiFF RAFF overshadowed by openers at Majestic Theatre

The afternoon of Dec. 7, I was posing with Santa at the Hilldale Shopping Center. I didn’t know it at the time, but the mall Santa was a grim foreshadowing of what would be one of the most disingenuous shows I’ve ever attended. The Christmas icon was stripped of his magic the moment I sat on his lap, and all that was left was an old man in a red costume. Children all around me began to cry as they realized the truth about Santa, just like the countless Majestic Theatre audience members that night did about RiFF RAFF, albeit a little less teary.

Der Rathskeller's Jukebox dies, and with it, a piece of us all

Depression is a product of modern culture

A lot of blame gets thrown around when discussing mental illnesses, especially depression. Depression is one of the haziest of chemical imbalances, and the line between clinical depression and just having a series of off-days is a fine one. Who bears the guilt for despondence? To what must we attribute our despair? Who is responsible for depression? Ourselves, the chronically depressed? Our friends and families? Surely no one is directly responsible for our anguish. Depression is no one person’s fault, because depression is a result of our modern lifestyles.

UW-Madison needs to cut ties with the fossil fuel industry

There are noble reasons to be proud of being a Badger. The UW-Madison has a rich legacy of student activism. We protested during the Vietnam Era in the ’60s. We fought against attacks on collective bargaining two winters ago. In the ’70s, we led the charge against apartheid.

Homeless need long-term solutions not empty promises

This is the final installment of a three-part series I've written on a single meeting held Monday night. I've used this meeting as an opportunity to delve pretty deeply into the tensions and issues surrounding the tent city of Occupy Madison as it moves from neighborhood to neighborhood. Things have happened since Monday; developments in this story are ongoing, and for timely updates I urge you to check the news section of this paper, which has had the best coverage of any traditional media in Madison, or a blog called "Forward Lookout" written by Brenda Konkel, about whom we will learn more shortly. Despite the fact that this meeting occurred Monday, over the past three days I have used it as a snapshot to provide insights into the escalating breakdown in communication between the homeless and, apparently, the whole rest of the world.

Homeless have limited legal options

Yesterday I wrote about a municipal listening session held for the Northport community about homeless people who had set up tents in a county park in their neighborhood. A brief recap: The neighbors, while surely compassionate people in their private lives and upstanding citizens in their public ones, didn’t understand why the homeless people had come and why they couldn’t go elsewhere. The city and county officials, notably including Lynn Green, the director of the Dane County Department of Human Services, felt put-upon, frustrated and incredulous that the needs of homeless people living at the encampment could not be met through existing, legal channels. And the homeless in attendance and their allies felt weary, stigmatized and misunderstood.

Occupy movement still politically relevant in Madison

People have a hard time equating the Occupy movement with the tent city for the homeless that Occupy Madison has become. Denizens of Madison, particularly residents of the various neighborhoods where the Occupy encampment has moved, have adopted a not-in-my-backyard approach to the issue. On the other hand, the movement has picked up allies everywhere it has gone. Everyone wants to know why these people are still on the street.

Gossip, expectations can limit our interactions and growth

This morning, as I was making my usual breakfast fare of bean-mush and egg, one of my housemates came in to make her usual eggs and oatmeal. We talked, as housemates will, about our other housemates. Onions frying, she told me that the night before she had heard the names of her and her boyfriend float into her room from the common-space. She was being gossiped about! It had taken her by surprise, and made her wonder: Did our housemates often talk about her behind her back? I said I supposed our housemates talked about everybody.

Hold employers, society accountable by being willing to quit

Most of us have a love-hate relationship with paid work. We love it because we feel grown-up and because it’s fun to get paid. But we hate it because with employment (in the modern sense) comes a whole mess of mind games and power dynamics. Many of us have put up with bosses that treated us with indifference, with disrespect, with contempt. We tolerate this treatment for two main reasons. First, we’re worried about what might happen to us if we quit. Jobs are often difficult to come by, and a decision to stay in an unhealthy work environment can be based on very practical concerns.

Economic democracy is good for the Madison community

What do a monk, a fugitive and a Green party presidential candidate all have in common? The answer is a commitment to economic democracy. Some of you may wonder what an economic democracy is. An economic democracy is an ethos, a challenge and the subject of a conference that took place this past weekend at Madison Area Technical College.