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Microtones

Our newsletter-first column brings you the notes between the notes.

The Spine Stealers' Kate Ruland (left) and Emma O'Shea (right) are shown in their Madison studio, standing next to a carefully-curated postcard collection that's housed in a wood stand.

Madison’s musical odds and ends of 2025

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January 16, 2026

A meditation on the past year's musical margins.

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A protest during a winter night. The photo shows a couple dozen protestors bundled in heavy coats. Many hold white signs that read "Power To The People Not To Big Tech" in black lettering. A few others on the right address the resistance against AI and support of Wisconsin families. The boxy Discovery World Science and Technology Museum appears behind them to the right, illuminated in red and green above its sign.
Opting out of the tech-backed AI inevitability narrative
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December 12, 2025

As data centers set their sights on harvesting Wisconsin's human and natural resources, refusal and resistance starts locally.

A photograph shows a medium close-up of different sizes of two t-shirt designs hanging on a clothing rack. The leftmost one is "Blade Runner" and the rightmost one is "The Thing." The "Blade Runner" tee prominently features Deckard's face (Harrison Ford) as well as text from the film in yellow and white, while "The Thing" tee includes small portraits of the cast arranged in two long rows with blue text and the iconic alien monster design rendered in black and white.
Movie tee envy
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December 5, 2025

Pondering a shirt collection, and stumbling upon Cosmic Cabin, which has the goods—at least niche ones for cinephiles.

The exterior of Harmony Bar & Grill on the corner of Dunning Street and Atwood Avenue in Madison, WI. The building has gray siding, a yellow marquee sign with a central yellow sign. Muted green accents and a classic brick facade surrounds the gray paneling. A street sign is visible, and the road around the venue is empty.
Tone Madison Presents: MAMA New Artist Listening Room
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November 21, 2025

Join us on Saturday, November 29, at Harmony Bar & Grill for a night of live music from emerging Madison artists.

A close-up of a basketball hoop at Windom Way Park in Madison, WI. The hoop takes up the center of the image. The sky is blue and the sun is positioned behind the backboard, providing a glow that helps illuminate the image. The rim is rusty and the net is metal chainlink. The backboard's an aged off-white with fading paint splatter. In the bottom left corner of the image, some treetops are visible, but out of focus.
Basketball is back, but it never really left
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November 7, 2025

Madison's basketball courts are reflective of endurance, persistence, and Wisconsinites' growing embrace of the sport.

An angled photo at an art gallery shows a large crowd of seated people, who are all looking forward and listening to a male speaker with a microphone at the front corner of the room (who is centered in this photo). To the speaker's right is a projection screen that displays a promotional collage of stills from short films in the forthcoming program.
Local open-mic cinema
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October 31, 2025

Project Projection at Arts + Literature Laboratory is assembling all facets of Madison's DIY and more professional film culture alike.

A trio of men stand centerstage holding up a Puerto Rican flag and pointing out to a dimly lit audience clapping and holding up phones to record.
Resilience and strength in ethnic studies
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October 24, 2025

Federal attacks on representation can't overshadow visibility, as UW–Madison establishes the first Midwestern Puerto Rican Studies Hub.

A black-and-white photo of a large outdoor billboard tilted at a left angle. In large black font, it reads "AUSTERITY ISN'T WORKING." Below that, a winding crowd of people wait at the unemployment office. In the bottom right corner, smaller black font reads "Britain's better off with the alternatives."
Unlearning the impulses of austerity
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October 10, 2025

If we're going to not only survive but thrive, we will have to do it together.

A crowd of protestors gather in the street. They include Illinois Congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh (at the center-right), who shouts into a white and red megaphone. Other protestors carry signs while wearing face masks and eye protection.
Wisconsin’s elected officials need to put themselves on the line
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October 3, 2025

Get disruptive, get arrested, get creative, but don't play along with fascism.

A photo modified with an impressionistic filter of an outdoor seating area at a pub. Several people sit at picnic tables under colorful umbrellas and a bright blue sky. A wooden fence divides the outdoor pub area from neighboring houses on the other side.
Neighborhood noisemaker
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September 26, 2025

Assessing the local political and social climate through a community dispute.