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A night with robotic anthropologists

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Back at the end of May, we reported from a one-night art event called Awkward Nocturnes, at which artist Claire Wilson and an audience of tinfoil-hatted thrill-seekers enjoyed a “performance” from a clattery ensemble of crude robots. On this week’s podcast, we revisit that story with a reading from Chris Lay. Give the story a listen […]

A Tone Madison audio extra: The torment of pedal pub season

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The high for today is a balmy 68 degrees (so close!), which means winter is finally fully on its way the hell out the door. The other side of that coin, though, is the return of pedal pubs, scourge of Madison’s moderately respectable drinking establishments. One of the most popular pieces we’ve ever run on Tone […]

A Tone Madison audio extra: A Rocky Rococo eulogy from 2016

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One of the classics of Tone Madison‘s short existence so far would have to be Ben Munson’s February 2016 piece about the man who portrayed Rocky Rococo, the suspiciously Leon Redbone-esque mascot for a Wisconsin chain of pizzerias. Munson, who used to work at a Rocky Rococo location in La Crosse, set out to interview […]

A Tone Madison audio extra: The great Szechuan sauce fiasco

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We wanted to share a fun new feature that we’re experimenting with on the Tone Madison podcast feed. For the next few weeks we’ll be adding in some audio versions of recently published articles. It’s something we’ve dabbled with in the past—but we’re looking to make this a regular part of the site now, instead of an […]

Parsing city arts funding in Madison

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The conversation about how Madison’s city government supports music and culture always seems a bit quieter than it should be. It’s about helping musicians and artists get paid, but it’s not. It involves public money and private organizations. It’s about the excitement of art and the clunkiness of institutions. It theoretically impacts everyone, but not […]