"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them." --Marcus Aurelius
"Happiness is a quality of the soul...not a function of one's material circumstances." --Aristotle
"Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind." --Plato
I apologize for filling your inboxes again twice in one week, but I've been coming to the realization that my last few Sunday essays have been full of political doom and gloom as the Minocqua Brewing Company deals with various legal entanglements-- but my company's reality is entirely different.
In one short month after opening our new tap room in Madison, WI, we've managed to book over 10 musicians, 6 poets, a world class law/sociology professor, a renowned landscape architect, a top Wisconsin ecologist/research scientist, and the Dean Emerita of the UW Madison School of Ed--all to share their talents and wisdom with the public.
Not only that, but we've made our tap room a monthly destination for 3 different statewide radio broadcasts in order to help get the word out about protecting democracy, the state of public education, and art/culture.
Just like The Sons of Liberty needed the Green Dragon Tavern to plan the Boston Tea Party...
Just like Hemingway needed Les Closerie de Lilas to be inspired by Picasso...
Just like Composer Tosti met at bars in the Abruzzo region to collaborate with the famous poet D'annunzio...
...I envision the new Minocqua Brewing Company in Madison to be a place where politicians, professors, scientists, poets, and musicians rub shoulders with each other, lift a few pints, and hopefully figure out how to solve our state's many problems while also creating beauty.
Here's a bunch of new events that we just booked at the new Taproom, and all of these events will be live-streamed to our 85K Facebook followers--kind of like the Brewery version of the "Wisconsin Idea,"--which says that education provided at the University of Wisconsin Madison should be available in all parts of the state, not just within the "Ivory Tower."
Science, Politics, Architecture, and Poetry on Tap
When? Starting today and running through the month of May, we have an amazing line-up of intellectuals sharing their talents with us over a few pints, all at the Tap room in Madison. Click on the links to get more details.
- Poetry on Tap w/ Richard Vargas, TONIGHT, April 24th, 7pm
- Science on Tap with DNR ecologist and research scientist, Jed Meunier. May 1, 7pm
- Politics on Tap with Noam Chomsky Professor of Law, Public Affairs, and Sociology Joel Rogers. May 8, 7pm
- Architecture on Tap with Landscape Architect Ken Saiki, May 15th 7pm
Remote Midwest and Statewide Radio Broadcasts
As many of you know, I made a few key introductions a few years ago that helped lead to the creation of Civic Media, a conglomeration of 12 radio stations throughout Wisconsin that present progressive talk radio--a desperately needed format that will hopefully provide a bulwark against the MAGA propaganda that has saturated our AM radio waves for way too long.
I recently met Tim Slekar, host of "BustED Pencils," a daily radio show on Civid Media that talks about public education nationwide. Tim was excited to work with me and my friend Dr. Julie Underwood to do a monthly remote broadcast at the Madison tap room where we invite guests from the Wisconsin's public education community to discuss ways we can fix education in our state. We'll be doing our first remote broadcast at 6 pm on Tuesday, April 30. Dr. Underwood will be a guest on the show.
Pete Schwaba is nationally-known comedian who hosts a nightly program on Civic Media called NITE LITE during which he discusses art and culture--right up my alley. So we decided to do 1 remote radio show a month at our new Tap Room to help shine a "lite" on the many artists/intellectuals we have coming to our place. Our first remote show will be on Tuesday, May 7, at 7:30 pm.
Last but not least, I've come to love working with Patti Vasquez, a comedian who hosts a progressive talk show on Chicago's WCPT 820 AM and Minneapolis' 950 am stations. On this monthly program, we'll talk about Wisconsin Politics to her broad Midwest audience during the all-important election season, where all eyes are on our dysfunctional swing state. Our first remote broadcast will be on Tuesday, May 28th, at 6 pm.
Music (at the Madison Tap Room, 2729 East Washington Avenue).
Along with our string of original singer/songwriters I've booked to both play at our Madison taproom and help us deliver beer to their respective home cities, I recently booked the Rabin String quartet to play a monthly residency on our Sunday "Beer Church" Series. Here's the line up for the next few weeks, and as always, all events will be streamed live on Facebook.
- Bentley Brehm. Friday, April 26th, 7pm. Buy Tickets Here
- Edward David Anderson. Saturday, April 27, 7pm. Buy Tickets Here
- Beer Church with the Rabin String Quartet, May 5th, 2 pm. Buy Tickets Here
- Zachary Scot Johnson, Friday, May 10th, 7pm. Buy Tickets Here
- Tommy Bentz, Saturday, May 11th, 7 pm. Buy Tickets Here.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for supporting the Minocqua Brewing Company.
We're--and that "we're" includes architects, academics, musicians, poets, scientists, and all EXPERTS int their fields-- gonna make Wisconsin Great Again--one beer at at time.
Kirk Bangstad
Owner, Minocqua Brewing Company
Founder, Minocqua Brewing Company Super PAC