Lake Effect

The 92nd Academy Awards takes place this Sunday, celebrating the best films and performances that the past year has had to offer. This year Joker, directed by Todd Phillips, leads with 11 total nominations.

The international feature film Parasite has become an audience favorite, and it competes for best picture top contenders including Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino and 1917 by Sam Mendes.

Changing perspective is what it takes for veteran singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey to keep his creativity flowing. The Milwaukee native and longtime guest on Lake Effect now lives in Massachusetts, but he was back in Wisconsin in January to record not one but two new albums at the Cafe Carpe in Fort Atkinson. He played new songs, shared insights on staying inspired and his future touring outlook.

Last year wasn't a good year for farmers. From small dairy farms struggling to survive across Wisconsin, to a trade war impacting the sales of big agricultural crops, to our local produce farms — it has been grim.

Farming contributor Dave Kozlowski, of Pinehold Gardens in Oak Creek, says that while normally farmers like the challenge of adapting, this past season was a new low — and climate change has a large part to do with it.

In Wisconsin, parents have a lot of choices about where to send their children to school. Open Enrollment allows families to switch between public school districts. Parental choice programs let some families enroll in private schools, using taxpayer-funded vouchers.

READ: Vice President Mike Pence Joins Wisconsin School Choice Rally

Two graduates of the University of Minnesota are nearly half way through their year-long tour of the United States. But they’re not just sightseeing — along the way, they're performing a play that one of them penned.

Oliver Bestul wrote The Birding Body. It’s a bird-themed tongue-in-cheek murder mystery. Veronica Swanson illustrated a booklet that accompanies the play and it allows for audience members to play along as the characters try to figure out who-done-it. 

As we embark on this next decade, let's reflect on the major events of the last 10 years. One topic that's always on people’s minds is food — and food trends. Whether you're reevaluating your relationship with food or are determined to try the latest diets, one thing we can count on is a grocery store to fill our changing food needs.

The 2008 economic recession hit Milwaukee hard. The housing market wasn’t spared and with it came a wave of foreclosures. Property values still haven’t quite recovered in many neighborhoods throughout the city.

We just had a warm winter weekend, but winter is far from over. And with winter comes, of course, the constant battle with the snow — and the snow plows.

While it’s annoying to get plowed into your driveway or have to dig your car out of the street, Milwaukee fares pretty well in its response time compared to similar Wisconsin cities. But when those big winter storms hit, the cleanup can impact more than our everyday lives — it can influence politics.

Every month we talk with cellist and Lake Effect contributor Robert Cohen about music and life in a segment we call On That Note.

Robert has been on tour since mid-January. We caught him in the Netherlands after he'd just come from Finland and the Tampere Chamber Music Festival. While he was in Finland, he performed on stage with someone he never expected to: jazz saxophonist Jukka Perko. Here is their performance of the Prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1:

Editor's note: This article was originally published on Oct. 16, 2019 ahead of Bleed Out's Wisconsin premiere at the Milwaukee Film Festival. 

Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in America. Often caused by miscommunication, medical errors can lead to life-changing outcomes for patients and their families — and the Burrows family is proof.

The piano trio is one of the most common groupings of musicians in classical chamber music. As the name indicates, the piano is the constant. The other two instruments can include the French horn and the clarinet, but the two most common are the violin and the cello.

February may be the shortest month, but it's packed with events all across Milwaukee. Sorting through the lists of community events can be overwhelming, which is why we turn to Ana Martinez-Ortiz.

Martinez-Ortiz is a staff reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. The news organization covers the central city, which includes a diverse group of neighborhoods on the near north, west, and south sides of Milwaukee. Here are Martinez-Ortiz's highlights of a few events taking place in the central city this February:

The Super Bowl is much more than a football game. It's a touchstone of American culture. And while people do watch it for the actual sporting event, many non-football fans love to watch the game for the commercials.

READ: Pageantry, Violence And High Stakes: A Philosopher's Take On The Super Bowl

For all the possible ways human bodies can fall ill, there are even more ways to treat them. Many of us combine Western allopathic medicine with things such as medication and other holistic approaches. Acupuncture is one of those practices. It’s been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years as a method of treatment.

Matt Wild is one of the co-founders of Milwaukee Record, which he and the other co-founder, Tyler Maas, describe as an online source for music, culture, and gentle sarcasm. Among the many cultural things Milwaukee Record keeps track of is a nearly exhaustive list of new music from local musicians.