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1 week ago | 
tonemadison.com | Scott Gordon |Christina Lieffring |Grant Phipps |Steven Spoerl
Tone Madison will be making some major changes this year. But we’re not going away, nor is our commitment to fiercely independent coverage of culture and politics in Madison. Co-founder Scott Gordon will step down from his role as Publisher and Editor-in-Chief on May 1. After taking some time off, Gordon will continue to contribute to the publication as a writer and reporter.
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2 weeks ago | 
tonemadison.com | Maxwell Courtright |David Boffa |Grant Phipps |Lewis Peterson
Documentaries aren’t necessarily Tone Madison‘s eminent go-to for film coverage. Scan our most recent archives, and you’re bound to come across numerous pieces on classic genre films of several shades as well as historically important art-house fare, and even some modern experimental shorts or influentially transgressive pieces. Over the past year, we’ve tried to emphasize brand-new narratives that have popped up in commercial theaters.
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4 weeks ago | 
tonemadison.com | Grant Phipps |LakeFront Row
Often, the most striking aspect of an experimental short film exists beyond the creative depth of the work itself. For viewers, it can be a reflexive thrill to regard the disparity between a written synopsis and the radical techniques an artist uses to visually and aurally convey their emotional state(s) or subvert our collective, conditioned concept of narrative.
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1 month ago | 
tonemadison.com | Grant Phipps |Lewis Peterson |Jason Fuhrman |Edwanike Harbour
It’s that time of year again, when we try to find phrases that aren’t cliché to express the giddiness in expectantly turning the pages of the annual Wisconsin Film Festival (WFF) guide.
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2 months ago | 
tonemadison.com | Grant Phipps |LakeFront Row
Listen to writer-director Nathan Deming speak about his work for just a minute, and you’ll grasp how he humbly wants his characters to find commonalities even in the trickiest of situations. He has positioned them in a formidable cinematic micro-universe, an undertaking partly inspired by Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog miniseries (1989).
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2 months ago | 
tonemadison.com | Steven Spoerl |Dan Fitch |Grant Phipps |LakeFront Row
All throughout 2024, Madison musicians’ resilience and artistry were on display. In a city where the deck seems to be constantly stacked against meaningful support for its local musicians, that’s no small feat. Even when a new setback appears, our music community retains its clear and irrepressible appetite for creation. Defiance is, by extension, inherent to so much of the excellent music that Madison musicians release every year, giving listeners art to rally around, uplift, and celebrate.
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Jan 23, 2025 | 
tonemadison.com | Grant Phipps |LakeFront Row
Since the first edition of The Horizon Line Madison, a new newsletter tracking local film screenings, went out on December 26, 2024, its namesake has accrued additional significance as a tribute to the last memorable lines delivered on screen by David Lynch.
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Jan 20, 2025 | 
tonemadison.com | Grant Phipps |Edwanike Harbour |Emily Mills |Sara Batkie
It may have taken a little longer, but we got Tone Madison‘s film gang together, virtually speaking, to meditate on their 2024 year in cinema. In recent years, partly by my own suggestion, we’ve moved year-end music coverage to the quieter (and more appropriate) month of January; and so it does feel suitable and more conclusive to aim for that same general publishing window for the musings of our eclectic film section.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
tonemadison.com | Steven Spoerl |Scott Gordon |Grant Phipps |Dan Fitch
Each and every year, Madison musicians manage to churn out a handful of surprises. Whether that’s in a live setting, through the music they release, or by way of unexpected collaboration (or innumerable other routes), there’s always a bevy of moments to celebrate by year’s end. Given the scale of Madison and how the music landscape functions in general, it’s also patently impossible to keep up with it all. Which makes it all the more notable when something incredible catches our collective ear.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
tonemadison.com | Steven Spoerl |Dan Fitch |Grant Phipps |LakeFront Row
All throughout 2024, Madison musicians’ resilience and artistry were on display. In a city where the deck seems to be constantly stacked against meaningful support for its local musicians, that’s no small feat. Even when a new setback appears, our music community retains its clear and irrepressible appetite for creation. Defiance is, by extension, inherent to so much of the excellent music that Madison musicians release every year, giving listeners art to rally around, uplift, and celebrate.
