Plenty of Horne

Milwaukee Public Schools student Derrick Hahn will get a chance to hear his composition performed at the Milwaukee Art Museum after all, a museum official told Plenty of Horne in an e-mail sent yesterday. The message came in the aftermath of a public relations situation in which Hahn’s was the only entry to a music composition contest for MPS students sponsored by the museum. The news was first reported last week by Plenty of Horne. Prior to the publication of the article, the museum had no plans for the performance of Hahn’s composition “A New Rising Dawn” despite it having…

In October, 2011 a competition was announced inviting “classes at Milwaukee Public Schools … to submit selections of original music to the Milwaukee Art Museum for a potential opportunity to be played on the opening or closing of the Burke Brise Soleil. “The winning schools and students will receive recognition for their achievement through press, marketing, and web-related materials …. Submissions are due by Saturday, December 19, 2011.” Fast forward to May, 2012. With the school year ending, MPS teacher Adam Murphy wondered why he hadn’t heard anything about the results of the competition. Murphy is the Band, Composition and International…

  photos by Michael Horne Hundreds of supporters gathered at the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee Grand Ballroom Downtown on Tuesday to celebrate the Democratic primary election victory of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in his quest to unseat Scott Walker as Wisconsin Governor in a recall election scheduled for June 5. “We can’t fix Wisconsin as long as Scott Walker is governor,” the mayor said in an impassioned speech which hit on a number of themes that have been well-tested by the campaign and well-rehearsed by the candidate. The Walker administration’s actions on many fronts have “raised fundamental issues,” he said, especially…

  “Splash” An oil painting by Wisconsin impressionist Francesco Spicuzza was the highlight of the first Milwaukee auction held by Chicago auction house Leslie Hindman on April 14, commanding ten times its pre-sale estimate and setting a record for the artist, who was born in Sicily in 1883 and lived in Milwaukee from 1891 until his death in 1962. “Splash,” an oil-on-board featured on the auction catalog cover, brought $23,180, far above its estimate of $1,000 to $2,000. “We’ve been told it’s the highest-selling Spicuzza to date,” says Heidi von Hagke, the auction house’s director of development. The painting, owned…

The Charter Meeting of the Milwaukee Common Council was held on Tuesday for the purpose of inaugurating City of Milwaukee elected officials and tending to other business. This quadrennial affair always finds the Great Hall of the People fully bunted and beflowered and filled with the aromas of a free buffet to come once the officials warm it up with plenty of hot air. It is a time for family and friends to join with the elected officials in a morning of good cheer and brand-new suits. It is also a time for newly elected officials to take their oaths…

Photo by Michael Horne Two thousand historians are in our midst for the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians and the National Council on Public History. Their conference, at the Frontier Airlines Center April 18-22, features enough panels, workshops and meeting groups to give seemingly every historian present a chance to deliver an address. There are events for specialty groups, like the “Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Reception” or the “Community College Historians Breakfast.” Many of the topics of the sessions include new scholarship on old themes, like the slave trade, the early civil rights era, and the labor movement. Milwaukee native Julilly Kohler-Hausmann, a history professor…

  Outgoing County Board Chairman Lee Holloway got some unwelcome press when it was revealed that he had asked each of his fellow board members to contribute $100 from their office account to pay for a celebration of Black History Month to be held on Wednesday, Feb. 29 at the King Community Center.   Lee Holloway The event was actually a going-away party for Holloway, critics said, and should not be funded by taxpayers to the tune of $1,900, an amount that would finance Chris Abele’s inauguration festivities for another 40 terms, based on precedent. With a cash balance of…

The Asian Mart, 1125 N. Old World 3rd St., a downtown mainstay for 38 years, “closed due to retirement” on Feb. 21, if you believe the banner in the window. Or, rather, it will soon, judging by the “open” sign on the door. According to yet another window sign, a tavern license is pending for a new establishment called “Ugly’s” that plans to set up shop in the old store. On the shelves there, a small amount of inventory remains, ranging from Bee and Flower soap to half-price red ginseng roots. Owners Carmelino Capati, Jr. and his wife, Concepcion Capati,…

Leslie Hindman Auctioneers will hold its first auction in its Milwaukee location, 414 E. Mason St., April 14. The storefront location, opened late last year, has been filling up with consignments that will be auctioned on the spot. Last week, for the first time, the curtains remained up and the lights remained on in the gallery space, greatly enlivening the surroundings and showing off quite a diversity of artworks and decorative arts. Of particular interest was a work that was clearly that of Francesco Spicuzza [1883-1963], the popular Milwaukee artist known for his impressionistic take on the community. This one,…

Milwaukee’s political power elite made a bad bet in the comptroller’s race. Their only hope now is to support a candidate who doesn’t need their help. Is there a lockstep political mentality in this city that must be addressed? Milwaukee County Supervisor and recent comptroller candidate Johnny Thomas (at left) submitted his Campaign Finance Report to the Board of Election Commissioners of the City of Milwaukee with less than an hour to spare before the 5 p.m. deadline Jan. 31. The paper document provides an interesting look at the money raised in 2011 for a candidate who had been anointed as the…