Me, Creature. You, youth of world. Hot demographic. You like the vampire. Creature get you like the vampire. Then you like the werewolf. Creature get you like the werewolf. Now you like the zombie. Creature no get you like the zombie. Is all so five minute ago. What be next... Continue reading

CARTOONS AND GRAPHIC STORYTELLING - Thursday, November 15 , 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. – From Pixar to the internet, animated graphics are everywhere! Learn to create your own cartoon characters, have them convey emotion, and tell jokes and stories in this fast-paced workshop. No experience necessary. For students in... Continue reading

Charitable review decries center policies Funds are uninsured By Jay Rath Documents released this fall by the fundraising arm of the Overture Center for the Arts portray an alarming downward financial spiral, even as the non-profit officially took over management of the center yesterday, Jan 1. A lot of ink... Continue reading

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Madison’s Festival Choir performed an outstanding concert of weather-related works this weekend, with the help of WKOW television meteorologist Bob Lindmeier. The Festival Choir is a superb, masterful and inventive ensemble that deserves much more recognition. In this age of “Glee,” you’d think there’d be a lot more interest. There... Continue reading

Madison has seen plays in a lot of odd settings, but one of the most unusual will be the window of Ford’s Gym, 2114 Winnebago St., this evening. “Hey, Fighter,” a new dramatic work by Erin Elise Hood and Marina Kelly, will be presented in 12-minute cycles from 6 to... Continue reading

I confess to liking all that is novel in music. I like circus songs, Spike Jones, calliopes, zithers, the Clicquot Club Eskimos and ocarinas. But nothing ever, ever prepared me for Dave Brubek’s “Take Five” as performed by the Madison Area Concert Handbells. Outrageous? And fascinating? And beautiful? You bet.... Continue reading

Joseph Haydn’s self-proclaimed masterpiece, The Creation, met with an instant and enthusiastic standing ovation in Madison on Saturday evening. Around 440 attended the performance by the Wisconsin Chamber Choir and Stoughton Chamber Singers at the Madison Masonic Center. The Creation is properly termed an oratorio, but in many ways it... Continue reading

Believe it or not, a lot of thought goes into The Washburn Expedition. The world’s first Facebook novel began when friends nagged me to join the social media site. I did. And then I rapidly decided that my life was not interesting enough to make constant updates. So I created... Continue reading

This will be a place for me to collect and share the various areas of my work, including cartoons, commentary, reviews and news. It's a broader continuation of an earlier column and blog I wrote in Madison, Wis., "The Rath of Madison." I've worked for The Onion, Disney, MTV and... Continue reading