The 2009 Wisconsin Film Festival and the IATSE #251 projectionists have once again dusted off the many 35mm projectors in downtown Madison to light up the screens. Local #251 projectionists were responsible for all film and video presented at the Orpheum, Orpheum StageDoor, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, the Majestic Theatre, and the Bartell Theater. Our projectionists have also had the opportunity to run film for the Wisconsin Film Festival at the Capitol Theatre and the Memorial Union Theatre where the 35mm projectors are still lit with carbon arc lamps instead of light bulbs. Imagine being responsible for running the film and making sure that two carbon welding rods maintain an arc of electricity between them as they burn away to nothing.
We are very fortunate to have an opportunity every year with the WFF to practice our trade with so many different films and houses filled with enthusiastic patrons. As Sean from Dane 101 points out,
New York, Los Angeles and Madison. There was a time when those three cities were the centers of U.S. film culture.
As one of the few remaining cities in the nation with both 35mm projection venues and full time contract projectionists, Madison remains a wonderful place to watch film.

Many fans in Madison may not know this, but the rock band Disturbed was just in town for several days to tech their current tour. Teching , or technical rehearsals, are when the talent and the production finally come together to build a performance. It's been a treat for the Madison Stagehands to have the Disturbed musicians and crew at the Alliant Energy Center this week. Indeed, having them here for more than one day did mean more than one day's pay for stagehands, which is awesome, but it's much more than that.

Former Madison mayor Paul Soglin makes some points on changes we have seen since the Overture has been built.

Overture is not the old Civic Center. The design and the price tag made sure of that. Overture lost the very essence of the old Civic Center: a place to encourage public access to the performing arts, arts of the people, new art forms, innovation, arts that transcended economic resources of the ticket purchaser.

He does also suggest a way to move forward:

There is a solution but it will not be found in a structure that created the problem. There is a difference between inviting the public to comment and genuine public control.

Wired Magazine has published two articles on the history of light.  The first titled Theater Lighting - It's a Gas speaks of some of the first theatrical lights used in Philadelphia.  The second article titled A Brief History of Light walks us through a photo gallery of light from the first moments of controlled use of fire for light to the use of LED's for a guerilla marketing campaign.

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"Madison News" reports on Jeopardy at the Kohl Center.