[Music]
Major funding for In Wisconsin is provided by the
people of a lion's energy who brings safe, reliable
and environmentally friendly energy to keep homes,
neighborhoods, and life in Wisconsin running smoothly.
Alliant Energy, offering energy saving ideas on the web.
[Music]
Welcome to In Wisconsin, I'm Patty Low.
Tonight we have a story that may
be right up your alley.
This Milwaukee area lab is the testing site for all
things bowling, nothing spare.
We'll also explain why this woman looks at a walk through
the woods as something of a trip to the craft store.
But first, he's a musician who has influenced thousands
of children over the years.
Chances are he's visited a school in your area as
an artist in residence.
As we close out Black History Month, we introduce
you to Leo the Stanley, who's made Black Music
accessible to a wide audience, and just may be making a
little history of his own.
[Music]
He's the music teacher we all wish we'd had as a kid.
Fun, Kip, a master of musical expression.
[Music]
Here at Windsor Elementary School, Madison musician Leo
the Stanley is the artist in residence of visiting musician.
Known internationally to gospel audiences, Stanley is a
preeminent singer, songwriter, pianist and director.
For the next week, these students will get an earful.
[Music]
I do try to focus on the genres of African American music.
So it would be blues, jazz, gospel, rap, and
spirituals, and then intertwined in that positive
messages within the songs.
And then I try to make a variety of music within
those specific genres.
[Music]
Ten years ago, Stanley looked into the artist in residency
program because his job as a Madison firefighter
gave him some flexibility.
He wanted to work with middle schoolers, but his first
gig was an elementary school.
It was just such a touching moving experience for my first
residency that I only wanted to do elementary schools.
Because the kids are so impressionable at that age
and they're learning, they're looking up to somebody
coming to the school and teaching them positive
messages through the songs.
And I said, "I like this.
This is a niche.
This is where I'm going to stay."
[Music]
And so I love the ability to untapped some potential
of the kids and that's what I want to do and continue
to do in its matter of fact.
After ten years of doing it, I decided to leave the fire
department just to do that.
That first residency so inspired him, he wrote four
songs, including "Be a Friend."
New songs came with each new school.
He recorded the songs with his students and created a
book, tape, and teacher's guide.
He's at his very best, I believe, when he's with
children and teaching them to enjoy music, appreciate
music and to learn to be musicians themselves.
He has a real empowering dimension to his personality,
such that he's able to convince the children
that they can do music.
Whether they have talent or not.
Mary Rouse works with Leo the Stanley at the UW-Morgridge
Center for Public Service.
Leo the is a very upbeat personality.
He's always optimistic.
He loves people and that comes across that human bond
is so strong with Leo the.
[Music]
His son day Stanley renews that bond as music director
at Mount Zion Baptist Church.
[Music]
Messages are so important within the music that when the music
is good the messages receive just a little bit better.
And so we've been fortunate to have a music program that
has helped sustain the church.
[Music]
Music has sustained Leo the Stanley.
Born and raised in Milwaukee Stanley was the third of
three children.
He had a musical vision early on.
With just two years of piano lessons he became the pianist
for the greater Galilee Baptist Church Youth Choir and earned
$10 a month playing music for the local funeral home.
See the vision.
See what it's going to look like in the
end and then take the steps to make it happen that way.
Stanley's vision also included athletics.
He was a scholarship track athlete at
the University of Wisconsin Madison and was invited to
the 1984 Olympic Trials in Los Angeles as a long jumper.
He didn't make the Olympic team losing out to a
guy named Carl Lewis.
I did my best and what I did to turn the tables to not just
be down about it I went over to Hollywood and Vine and I
got on the Will of Fortune Game Show and I won a grand piano.
So it's just a matter of don't let things get you down but
what can you do instead of?
Lee, I like to solve it.
You did it.
You got the ball.
He came here wanting one prize a grand piano
which cost $7,000 and $8.00.
You have to have $7,100.
Lee, what would you like?
I like the piano.
You got it.
See the vision.
Go for it.
And keep on going.
Get another vision.
? In my Lord, you live a radio ?
His vision has taken him full circle to a community
that values him and work that inspires him.
? In my Lord, you live a radio ?
Although the congregation at Mount Zion is primarily
African-American, its choir is distinctly multicultural.
Yes it is and we try to welcome anybody and everybody
that wants to sing if they have a love of the Lord.
? Shine in our Lord ?
That's right.
Give me a shining hour.
? Shine in our Lord ?
Let me hear your shining hour.
? Shine in our Lord ?
Multiculturalism is a core value of Leo the Stanley.
It's at the center of his volunteerism.
It's at the heart of his music.
It's a theme he tries to convey to his students.
? Talking about justice, freedom ?
? Talking about freedom ?
I think they ought to be proud of who they are no
matter where they come from.
Because some people get down on you because you might
come from a different social economical background.
But be proud of who you are and yet appreciate other people
that are different than you.
What do you want the kids to get out of that experience?
Self-confidence, self-esteem, working with other people.
? Open up your heart to walk ?
? Open up your heart to all ?
? There let you love me too strong ?
? Hosanna with you stand tall ?
I don't want to make a difference while I'm here.
The older I get, the more that makes so much sense
to me because I know that the time is limited now.
And I want to just give that to younger people so that
they can have that attitude while they're coming up.
And I just want to be a difference maker.
Make it a little bit better since I was here
than before I came.
? Or it's far to way to stand tall and be a friend who cares ?
In addition to his work in the schools and mountain
Zion Baptist Church, Leothastanley also
teaches a gospel choir class at the University
of Wisconsin Whitewater.
And he coordinates a volunteer program at UW-Madison called
"Booking It With Bucky."
It promotes reading at elementary schools by connecting
UW-Madison athletes with fourth and fifth graders.
? ?
We changed gears now to tell you about a sport one in three
Americans can't get enough of.
Bowling. One of the largest national
bowling tournaments began this month and all of the equipment
used has one thing in common.
It's been tested by a lab in Greendale.
The Milwaukee suburb is home to the National Testing
Site for Bowling Equipment.
The ball doesn't roll and the pins don't fly without
the seal of approval from the American Bowling Congress
Research and Testing Laboratory.
? ?
There are almost 160,000 member bowlers in Wisconsin.
People signed up to play in about 400 sanctioned bowling
centers throughout the state.
There are almost 5,000 bowling lanes in Wisconsin.
In the late 1990s, places rated hominem declared that there
were more bowlers per capita and a box valid than anywhere
else in the United States.
Wisconsin has long been associated with bowling.
And the National Offices of the American Bowling Congress
or ABC are in Greendale, a suburb of Milwaukee.
Behind the headquarters of the ABC is a testing facility
which tests and approves everything related to bowling.
Here is where you'll find bowling researcher Neil Stremel.
I'm the Director of Research which means this
research facility and back here is my playground.
We test anything to do with bowling.
We test bowling products from balls and pins to lane oils,
lane surfaces, pin setters, foul detectors, on and on.
Anything to do with bowling.
Here we have Harry who is our precision ball thrower.
He's unique.
There's really only two ball thrower in the world.
We use it for a lot of testing, testing of
oils, testing of balls.
We can control the miles an hour here.
And typically we throw at 17 miles an hour for much
of our research and testing.
And typically we're somewhere between 200 and 250 RPM.
And we can also adjust the release point which
basically is the loft.
He's accurate to within about a third of a board
which is about a third of an inch and 0.1 miles an hour.
So he's consistent but he's never thrown a 300 game.
And the reason why is because he keeps throwing
over the exact same spot.
He takes the oil out of that spot and it starts to
hook a little bit sooner.
While he is much more accurate, much more consistent
than I am, he still hasn't thrown a 300 game.
The test center has eight different lanes, each with
different oils and surfaces.
Automatic pin setting equipment and an atmospheric control
system that can simulate almost any climate in the country.
We've had almost raining in here.
We can get humidity up to almost 100% temperature down
to freezing up to 80-90 degrees.
Manufacturers, bowling balls and pans, send the American
Bowling Congress products to be tested and approved.
Bowling balls have obviously evolved over time.
We had some evolution of different cores, different
weight blocks in the core, different core material.
And it evolved from simple to maybe overly complex and
started to back off from there.
Pins are another area that we look at and they go through
a rigorous testing process before they become approved.
We also cut them in half and take a look at what they
look like inside and verify that they're made well.
This is basically how a pin is made.
This is the final product.
This is before it gets coated and you can see the
different material, the different wood and different
black shapes in the pin.
This is really what a pin looks like before it gets cut down.
This is where we keep our equipment that's
been tested and approved.
Now on my right we have bowling balls.
All the bowling balls that have been
tested and approved over the last say about a year.
We hang on to those to make sure that if there's any
problem with those out in the field that we still have the
original one that we've tested and approved to go back to.
Same thing with pins on the left we keep pins.
Any pin that gets a permit we hang on to it.
Approved balls and pins are kept in this fenced and
locked back room to make sure manufacturers don't deviate
from approved standards.
This is also where stramble slices balls and pins can
hang to check internal parts.
It'd be tough to get a strike with that one.
Yeah this was a legal ball.
It is now does not meet the roundness specification so it
cannot be used in sanction play.
Use for curling or something.
It's nice and smooth.
The center not only tests and approves how bowling
products are made but also how they perform.
This is what we call bowl score.
It's an automated ramp test and it's typically
used for testing pins.
It's one of the key tests for getting a pin approved.
Basically we have the ball.
Instead of going down the ball return back to the
bowler it goes up this ramp here and gets released
at a certain height which affects the speed of the ball.
We have that timed out to throw it at a certain speed.
It took at least 17 miles an hour and right into the pins.
We can adjust the pin setter here, the ramp test,
to the perfect strike by adjusting the platform
through the computer here.
Adjust two arms onto the platform that gets to whatever
angle we want and then both of them can move in and out to
get whatever offset we want.
Basically it's all physics and trigonometry but the angle
into the pocket, the bigger the angle, if you look at the
head pin and the three pin for a right hander, the bigger the
angle, the bigger the pocket.
By increasing your angle you're going to have a much better
chance of getting a strike.
To make sure that bowling is fair and better for all bowlers.
The ABC continue to take various balls, pins, planes
and pin sets.
Here in Neil Stremel's playground.
There's tons of new equipment that always comes out and
there's so many different areas of the game to look at.
It's hard to keep everything covered so I got plenty
to do for quite a while.
[Music]
The Algonma woman in our next story brings us fine arts
straight from the forest.
Artists Donal Look's baskets may end up in museums but
they have their roots in the woods of Wisconsin.
A walk in Wisconsin woodlands or some it's an invigorating
hike for others a relaxing stroll but for Algonma artist
Donal Look, a walk through a stand of Wisconsin Birch
is more of an expedition.
I don't like to purchase materials other than
thread I'd just like to collect my own materials.
I'm taking bark off of trees that will be logged.
These areas have all been marked by
logging companies.
They will be either clear cut or selectively
logged and they will be logged and down within the year.
So I'm not going out wherever I see a great tree and just
ripping the bark off of it.
I assess the trees as to whether they're good trees, good useful
trees meaning useful for me.
These good useful trees destined for logging provide
the raw materials for looks art.
Birch baskets that are found in the collections of
museums across the country but it all begins in the
woods of northern Wisconsin.
It begins there because that's where I collect materials and
the materials often dictate what I should do with it.
Every tree is different.
I think it's it sounds silly
but I think it's somewhat like people where we all
have different skin tones and I have a lot more freckles
and someone else is dark.
Every tree has a different kind of complexion to it.
For some pieces might have these tiny
little lines and others have really large big gross lines.
You can tell I've looked at a lot of bark.
So it's I see it in different ways and I try to
look at it carefully in the woods so that I can make notes
about what I might use it for.
One year we were collecting and I remember it was freezing rain
and then it started snowing and it was painful.
It was so cold and the next day I think it
was 90 in the same spot and the no-seam and the bugs and just
started storming and biting.
It's very precious to me because it's taken a lot of
work to go out and collect it.
Back in her studio these precious supplies are
transformed into vessels that combine the natural
world and find design.
I think that originally the idea in my head is a vision
of some certain form and some of those ideas or those
visions I think probably come from my environment obviously.
I'm a gardener.
I grow a lot of things like pumpkins and
vegetable forms.
I live in a place where I have a lot of
flower gardens and a really naturally beautiful environment.
I see a lot of different pod forms and leaf forms that are
always inspirational and I think that's entering into my
imagination and that's where the original ideas come from.
Looks talent for seeing in different ways has led to
numerous honors including two national endowment for the
arts fellowships but it all begins with a few simple tools
and her woodland harvest.
I learned to sew as a child.
My grandmother and my mother both
sewed a lot and I was taught how to sew by hand before I
was able to sew on a machine.
I've always really liked that process of sewing
and I've always enjoyed working with my hands.
It seemed like a normal thing to weave and sew.
I see myself as coming from a basket tradition because
I use materials that I collect myself and I see that
as a part of the ancient tradition of basket weaving
that is really prehistoric.
There were baskets before there was any written word and I
see that as that tradition and I'm proud to be part of that.
I don't pay attention from start to finish an hour by hour how
much time is in and one or none.
One piece can take very little time and one piece can take
years and never be resolved.
And then some of them end up in it covered to be for years
to be someday maybe resolved.
It's just a cup full of questions.
To me it's an evolution of from one thing to another and what
I learned there I hope I can use beyond and so I keep...
I see it as one long learning process it's something I
will do as long as I can see the needle and thread and
I can work with my hands.
It's something that I really like to do.
I would hope the people see my work as art and see
that there is a quality of craftsmanship there.
The raw materials of a Wisconsin forest crafted
into art through the hands and vision of Donal Look.
Donal Look, one of the many artists in Wisconsin.
We have an update on a story we first told you
about a few weeks ago.
We introduced you to some Wisconsin residents who
are looking to Canada for relief from high
prescription drug costs.
This week Governor Jim Doyle announced the debut of a
state website that allows Wisconsin residents to purchase
prescription drugs directly from Canadian pharmacies.
The website is similar to one already in use by Minnesota.
That site prompted the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration to send a warning letter this
week to the Minnesota governor.
The letter calls the site unsafe, unsound and
ill-considered, but stop short of demanding it be shut down.
Minnesota does not plan to remove the website at this time.
That's our program for this week.
Thanks for joining us.
We leave you now with a walk through Parfrees
Glen in Sock County.
For in Wisconsin, I'm Patty Low.
Good night.
(music)
(low featured music)
- Major funding for InWisconsin is provided
by the people of Alliance Energy,
who bring safe, reliable, and environmentally friendly
energy to keep homes, neighborhoods,
and life in Wisconsin running smoothly.
Alliance Energy, offering energy saving ideas on the web.
(low featured music)