http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/blogs.engine.php   Dickens is so often remembered in December. The man wrote so much more than A Christmas Carol, though . . . and as the weather heats up to the other side of the year, it's a pretty good time to remember some of the themes Dickens covered…and since it's summer why not remember them in musical format?    So it is that Jim & I Productions presents Oliver! that musical mutation of Oliver Twist. The production, which has a]]> <p> The Silk Road was the ancient trade route from China through the Caucasus in the era when caravans carried commerce and culture across the world. <em>The Music of Central Asia Vol. 10</em> (released by Smithsonian Folkways) is the latest in an ambitious project by the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims, to expose, preserve and further the music of that region. The audio disc features performances by Wu Man, a]]>   Love I can relate to. Ancestral culture? Uh, no . . . there's really no ethnic culture her for me. I come from an ambiguously European mishmash. My last name means, "place of the marsh," in a language nobody speaks anymore. None of my identity is formed from cultural heritage. It's all just weird little idiosyncrasies drawn against the flat, mass-culture I grew-up with. And that's why nationalism always seemed a little strange to me. And]]>     Things appear ton e getting lined-up for quite a lot of Shakespeare this summer in various attractive places around greater Milwaukee. The new show by World's Stage Theatre joins a summer with two outdoor Shakespeare stagings this summer. Hosted by World's Stage's Gretchen Mahkorn, Desire Is Death is a program featuring scenes and sonnets about love and the usual sorts of Shakespearian complexity that goes along with it.  &nbs]]> If you\'re looking for a supergroup of oddball white rappers, you could do a lot worse than the trio of Brooklyn food-and-wrestling enthusiast Action Bronson, MTV-reality-star-turned-Soulja-Boy-protege Riff Raff, and Brew City luminary Dana Coppafeel, who met up in Milwaukee this spring to record the track &quot;Hot Shots Part Duex.&quot; (Given Bronson\'s love of trash cinema, I\'m guessing the song title was his idea.) Th]]> Doug Melvin was on the radio this morning stating that he thought Marco Estrada would miss 3-4 starts and later today he was put on the 15-day DL. He left yesterday's game with what was termed a right hip-flexor strain, but is now being called a quad injury. Mike McClendon has been called up from Nashville to replace Estrada on the roster. The current option looks to be Manny Parra taking a role as a starting pitcher, but it's still possible that]]> In a move that many hoped they'd make, the Brewers claimed former Arizona Diamondback Cody Ransom off waivers. Ransom hit .269 with four homers and 13 RBI while with the Diamondbacks and is a  career .226/.310/.409 hitter over 248 major league games.  Since Alex Gonzalez went down, the Brewers have been woefully thin at SS. Cesar Izturis is not a long term option and Edwin Maysonet, while he did bring some heroics, is a career minor lea]]> Last year former Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa complained about everything from the Miller Park roof to the ribbon board and now he's got a comrade in arms. Giants manager Bruce Bochy blamed his team's first-inning errors on the bright sun that cut across the left side of the infield. He blamed the partially closed Miller Park roof. The Brewers have taken to partially closing the right side of the roof to ensure that the shadows that are a part ]]> The Wisconsin Badger men's hockey team will celebrate it's 50th season of the modern era this season - it will also be their last as a member of the WCHA. And those aren't the only historic parts of the season. They open up in Green Bay against brand-new program Penn State. And they will be dedicating the ice at the Kohl Center as "Bob Johnson Rink."They are playing 12 games against last year's tournament teams. Practice begins Oct. 6 and the tea]]>     Where as many theatre companies that operate during the regular season take a long nap for the summer, there are those that remain active for a show or two. Soulstice Theatre has been one of those local theater groups that has always had a show or two running for a couple of weeks in the summer. This year they are running a series of one-weekend-only shows. Here's a look:   June 22nd and 23 Soulstice stages a variety show in h]]> <p> Fathers and sons have bonded in the wild as far back as the first hunting parties of prehistoric man. It's a primal thing. When unemployed journalist Steven Faulkner and his 17-year old son, Justin, embarked on a nine-week, thousand-mile canoe trip from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to St. Louis, Faulkner the elder couldn't resist capturing the experience in words and publishing a well-written account of the journey. </p]]> <p>Teen sensation Justin Bieber, who recently turned voting-age, will headline the BMO Harris Bradley Center—we may never get used to calling it that—on Sunday, Oct. 21, the venue announced this morning. The performance is part of a 46-date North American tour behind the singer\'s fourth album, <em>Believe</em>, which is due in stores June 19. &quot;Call Me Maybe&quot; singer Carly Rae Jepsen opens.<b]]> <p> <em>My Perestroika</em> will confirm as well as confound the impressions spread by American media about life in the Soviet Union during its final decade. The archival footage is as priceless as the interviews with Russians, now in middle age, who came of age in the '80s. The documentary by Robin Hessman (out on DVD) opens with scenes from a choreographed youth rally in Red Square, with row after row of Young Pioneers in]]>   Vince Figueroa and Beth Lewinski are developing a sequel to last summer's Natalie Ryan and The Brain Thieves. There isn't much in the way of popcorn sic fi drama on local stages. The novelty of seeing that type of story play out live onstage as opposed to the multiplex was one of the big highlights of Milwaukee theatre last summer. It's just a really cool novelty.   This year's return to Natalie Ryan (kind of a cross between Do]]>   The Boulevard Theatre's Verse & Vino fundraisers are a lot of fun. Wine. Appetizers. A silent auction. Actors milling about. Fun. Next month, the venerable little theatre company helmed by Mark Bucher is staging a V&V fundraiser at the City Lights Building on 212 West Mount Vernon Avenue. (That's between Canal Street and St. Paul Avenue off of 25th Street.)    Home to Zimmerman Architectural Studios, the building looks be]]> <p> Marriage is seldom just a coupling of two people. Usually it also involves the merger of family, friends and history. In the comedy <em>Newlyweds</em>, a carefree young couple is finally forced to sort through the baggage each brought to their marriage, including suitcases that had never been aired out. </p> <p>Written and directed by Edward Burns in a school of Woody Allen pseudo-documentary style, <em>]]> <p> Summerfest\'s snazzy new BMO Harris Pavilion—a covered, amphitheater-esque stage on the lake, which is set to feature large video screens and an elevated lakeside bar with a viewing area—will also host performances outside of Summerfest. This morning Summerfest announced three summer shows the stage will host after the festival ends:<br /></p> <p><strong>Counting Crows</strong> with opene]]> The Bradley Center, the 24-year-old arena that the entire city <a href=\"/article-18672-disposable-arenas.html\">can\'t wait to tear down</a> and <a href=\"/article-18704-a-response-tailored-for-the-times.html\">replace with newer one</a> that\'s maybe a little bit better but mostly just newer, will now be called the BMO Harris Bradley Center. Representatives of the Bradley Center and BMO Harr]]> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> &]]>     A man in his early forties has cut a skylight in his attic. He has placed a recliner underneath it. All of his stuff is on his front lawn. There's a sign there. It reads, "Here's my life. Make an offer." He's looking for that place where all the decisions we never made converge. And Soulstice Theatre is looking for him. On stage his name will be Donny. They're looking for an actor to play him onstage.   They're also looki]]>