{"id":38961,"date":"2018-02-12T08:55:51","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T14:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/?p=38961"},"modified":"2018-02-13T20:19:42","modified_gmt":"2018-02-14T02:19:42","slug":"did-the-60s-ever-really-end-mad-city-keeps-the-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/2018\/02\/12\/did-the-60s-ever-really-end-mad-city-keeps-the-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Did the 60s ever really end? Mad City keeps the faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Madison Reunion<\/a>,\u00a014-16 June at–where else?–the Memorial Union.<\/em><\/p>\n

DB here:<\/p>\n

When Kristin and I arrived in Madison, Wisconsin in summer of 1973, the campus and the city retained a strong countercultural vibe. I knew I belonged here when I saw, just off State Street, a warped little bungalow advertising itself as a witchcraft shop. But the city was more than Deep-Freeze Haight-Ashbury. People still remembered the Dow Chemical demonstrations of 1967, in which students protested job recruitment for the manufacturers of napalm. Some of the gang responsible for blowing up Sterling Hall<\/a> in 1970 were still fugitives. There were undercover cops<\/a>, and\u00a0Take Over<\/em> was still being published.<\/p>\n

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\nOut of that era in Madison came two enduring works of documentary: the film The War at Home<\/em><\/a> (1979) by Barry Alexander Brown and Glenn Silber, and David Maraniss’s book They Marched into Sunlight<\/a><\/em> (2003). Barry has gone on to be a prominent film editor, notably for Spike Lee, and Glenn went on to a career as a television documentary producer for ABC, CBS, and Frontline. Maraniss, who also attended UW–Madison, is a Pulitzer-Prize winning writer.<\/p>\n

In a way, the 60s never left Madison. The Progre<\/em>ssive<\/a> is published here, boasting the talents of Ruth Conniff<\/a> (a Madison native), Bill Lueders<\/a>, and many other committed people. Our current mayor, Paul Soglin<\/a>, was one of the most dynamic activists during the campus upheaval. Stu Levitan<\/a> came along later and added another progressive voice to the mix. Prolific journalists\u00a0John Nichols<\/a>\u00a0(of The Nation<\/em><\/a>) and\u00a0Mary Bottari<\/a>\u00a0(of the Center for Media and Democracy,\u00a0<\/a> exposer of ALEC) carry on that tradition. The Capital Times<\/em><\/a>, under current editor Paul Fanlund<\/a> and emeritus editor Dave Zweifel<\/a>, maintains its tradition of grassroots political coverage and commentary. Ditto our free paper, Isthmus<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and WORT<\/a>, our community radio station. One of our Senators is Tammy Baldwin<\/a>, long-time top\u00a0target of Koch dark dollars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Freedom from Religion Foundation <\/a>is invigorated by the work of Annie Laurie Taylor<\/a> and Dan Barker<\/a>. Social struggles continue in the Hispanic<\/a> and African American<\/a> communities. Of course many Madison residents remember the 60s vividly, and thousands of them turn out for the street rallies and marches: opposing the invasion of Iraq (the action included\u00a0the Raging Grannies<\/a>\u00a0), protesting Scott Walker’s divide-and-conquer policies<\/a> in service of the Koch brothers, occupying the state capitol en masse<\/a>, challenging retrograde immigration policies<\/a>, and organizing resistance<\/a> to the ongoing Trump coup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was a gonzo side too. Terry Zwigoff belonged to the Society of the First Dime, a club in honor of Uncle Scrooge<\/a>; Carl Barks honored the group with a drawing. When we got here people were still talking about\u00a0Stuart Gordon<\/a>‘s nude Peter Pan<\/em><\/a>. Kentucky Fried Theater<\/a> was going strong. The Onion<\/em><\/a> started here, and Jim Mallon<\/a>\u00a0helped found Mystery Science Theater 3000<\/em>. The Pail & Shovel Party<\/a>\u00a0planted flamingos on Bascom Hill and\u00a0paid tribute to\u00a0Planet of the Apes<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on Lake Mendota.<\/p>\n

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In short, we live in what Rush Limbaugh called The People’s Republic of Madison. We feel proud and lucky. And a bit self-righteous? Maybe, but with some reason. Recall that Wisconsin, always a state of extremes, brought America failed Prez candidate Walker, Paul Ryan, Reince Priebus (blessed<\/a> by our President\u2122), Ron “I Have an Informant” <\/a>Johnson, Charlie “Don’t Blame Me” <\/a>Sykes, and Glenn Grothman, the House rep honored by a John Oliver segment<\/a>–and who flees his district<\/a> (town pop. 463) to hang out among us and\u00a0spin dad rock<\/a> on WORT.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, you won’t be surprised to learn that coming up this summer, our fair city will play host to The Madison Reunion<\/a>.<\/strong> This “party with a purpose” on 14-16 June<\/strong> could not come along at a better time. There will be music, art exhibits, dance performances, and of course films at our Cinematheque<\/a>. The conference<\/a>\u00a0will feature some remarkable panels. Brown and Silber and Maraniss will be there, of course, along with Jeff Greenfield, Errol Morris, Reina Steinzor, ZAZ<\/a>, \u00a0Ben Karlin, Russ Feingold, and many other alums and guests. Sessions will be devoted to influential faculty like Harvey Goldberg and George Mosse. Would they were living at this hour.<\/p>\n

I predict that a hell of a time will be had by all. You coming? Glenn Grothman might even drop by.<\/p>\n

\n

Thanks to Barry Brown and Jerilyn Goodman for information about the Reunion. The Lady Liberty photo is by Angela Weier and Bryce Richter.<\/p>\n

Stu Levitan provides a rich cultural history of 60s Madison in this article<\/a>. The University library has compiled a fascinating dossier<\/a> on the Sterling Hall bombing. Other blog posts on Madison and Madisonians are this very early one<\/a>, this later one on movie events<\/a>, and this one on Errol Morris<\/a>. (Have you seen Wormwood<\/em><\/a>? Very Madison.)<\/p>\n

P.S. 13 February 2018:<\/strong> Thanks to Richard West for a correction about the Society of the First Dime, and to\u00a0S\u00f8ren Marsner who maintains the website that includes the images<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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From the UW–Madison Archives.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Madison Reunion,\u00a014-16 June at–where else?–the Memorial Union. DB here: When Kristin and I arrived in Madison, Wisconsin in summer of 1973, the campus and the city retained a strong countercultural vibe. I knew I belonged here when I saw, just off State Street, a warped little bungalow advertising itself as a witchcraft shop. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-comments","category-uw-film-studies-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38961"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38987,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38961\/revisions\/38987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidbordwell.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}