Check out the front-page article in the Winona daily newspaper here.

The Icarus '07 Mad Gifts Week Tour continues with Sascha, Will, and Madigan driving through Chicago, Illinois and Winona, Minnesota.

Chicago at Quimby's bookstore was like a homecoming for Icarus, as Sascha and Ashley many years ago had stopped there on one of the early tours.  Quimby's is a dazzling collection of underground media, a blizzard of zines and books and comics of every imaginable kind. The 20+ person turnout included a lot of detailed questions about the new Coming Off Drugs guide and some great suggestions for the second edition. A mental health staffperson who works in a supported housing agency wanted more information about what to do when people seem unmotivated and uninterested in getting help, and Will had a long conversation with her about the attitudes of staff and how to balance respect for individual autonomy with making resources and possibilities available to people.

Our gathering continued over at Ear Wax restaurant, with Will moving in and out of various post-presentation altered states and everyone else sharing stories and experiences of madness and surviving in a world gone mad. It was great hanging out with the awesome organizers of the Chicago Mad Tea Party, a local radical mental health group that's been going strong for several years and just put out a new 'zine compilation. Thanks to Madigan's musician friend Oz for hosting our stay in his cozy apartment. And what's an Icarus tour without a gender disorienting camp extravaganza? Bonfire Madigan super-fan-friend girl, Julie and her pals invited us to an outrageous Halloween showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show in the packed 800 seat (haunted) Music Box theater   (a venue Will remembered from when he lived in Chicago in 1985). Next we visited the alternate universe of Cousins raw food restaurant, where Madigan channeled a ferocious clown spirit to defend us from a plot to substitute carrots for beets. Then we were off into the windy bright skies towards our next destination.

After a brief swing through Madison Wisconsin with a stop at the InfoShop and Escape Coffeehouse, we arrived at the deserted midnight streets of Winona Minnesota. Headquarters was the picaresque Walnut Castle, certainly a stylin' d.i.y. crib with an impressive vinyl collection. Greeting us on the kitchen table was the front page of the local paper: and a huge photo of Madigan! Local co-conspirator, event organizor Alex did an extraordinary job of mass mobilizing the Winonan masses via radio, newspapers, forums, emails, setting the stage for a huge diverse 75+ person turnout in the Winona Arts Center. With the humility typical of a master of their craft, Alex explains, "Everything that could've gone wrong, did go wrong.  But in the end  it all worked out right."

"Right" was over the top. After serious sound problems were solved by tech magician Mikey, and a rousing warm-up by the politically incisive folk musician Mike Bird,  a winged Madigan accompanied the Crooked Beauty video trailer with solo cello, and then the Icarus mutant superhero team stirred the packed crowd with a rousing presentation. Sascha read from Friends Make The Best Medicine, and Will told the story of making it from Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute to the Freedom Center. The crowd offered a wide range of questions and responses, from what wellness really means to the pros and cons of identifying with "dangerous gifts" in a world that has it's own ideas about mentally illness and dangerousness. Bonfire Madigan tied the evening together with a stirring set of original tunes for voice, cello and live looping. Thanks to Katie and Toast for holding down so much of the crowd traffic routing, to Froseph and Casandra for offering the nest for very tired Icaristas to retire to, and to Alex for the boat house / house boat tour (and explaining the difference). Sounds like the reverberations are still reverberating: inspired by the event, the Winona Catholic Worker is hosting a mental illness roundtable on Nov. 30th 2007. Hey midwest - please let us know how it goes.

Winona was certainly a high point of the tour so far, and it was sad saying goodbye to our friends as we headed off up north. Definitely have to make it back to this vibrant little community...

 - Will Hall & Bonfire Madigan Shive

Alex, our amazing Winona collaborator, writes:

I had kind've burned myself out as far as making shit happen in Winona...and was gonna Slow Down. but then i got an email from Madigan out-of-the-blue, saying "October 30th might work in Winona". so i jumped on it. didn't even ask the Winona Arts Center board, as i knew the date was open. i considered this larger, more ornate theatre that i volunteer for, but then when i heard it was a more multi-media thing with the Icarus Project i decided upon the Arts Center and straight-up rented the venue (so i could do whatever i wanted).

then it was to the process of promoting the event...at first it was just press releases that Winona would be hosting a day of the "international" Mad Gifts Week...just to make people curious.

then it was trying to figure out specific organizations and people that would specifically want to know about it. i hadn't really had any interactions with any local mental health "facilites" and whatnot, so i was going into unchartered waters on that. and then i attacked the Strings and Orchestra folks. and i went after Winona State campus groups hard. i already knew how to get the word out to music lovers, but i was having a hard time figuring out who to "sell" this event to. but i left no stone unturned, no media outlet untouched, no bulletin board/window/pole untarnished. still... i didn't know who would come.

and then, as i said before, everything that could've gone wrong on the day of the event DID. no further information is necessary. thankfully i had some Plan B's and C's lined up.
and everything (as always) worked out. and worked out very well in fact...the Arts Center was full of the "unusual crowd". i can't say i recognized that many of them, which is why i say unusual. it was a success before anything even happened, because this event had brought these people together...and probably all for different reasons. and something WILL come out of that...seeds have been planted.

here are some links:
http://www.kqal.org Winona State radio helped promote the show
http://www.winonaarts.org Winona Arts Center where the show was
http://www.blueheroncoffeehouse.com Alex's "office"
http://www.myspace.com/twinklepig Froseph was supposed to open, at Sugarbeet and Arise
http://www.myspace.com/mikebird Mike Bird opened
http://www.myspace.com/edhoffman Ed, who had the bar that Madigan went to
http://www.myspace.com/tofupuppy Andy Waltzer, from WFMU NYC was there
http://www.myspace.com/intowishin4 Casandra/Cassiopeia, got her album, stayed at her place

the event got promoted on KQAL Winona State's radio, and made it into the following:
Winona Post 10/10 & 10/24 (short articles)
Second Supper 10/24? (LaCrosse area weekly)
Live! 10/25 (Winona area Weekly) here:
http://www.rivervalleynewspapers.com/articles/2007/10/28/entertainment/winona/quickpicks/quickpicks25.txt
Winona Post-10/28 front page (Madigan photo, full Icarus article) here's the link:
http://winonapost.com/stock/functions/VDG_Pub/searchdetail.php?choice=21566&searchtext=icarus&s_year=2007&s_month=&s_day=&e_year=2007&e_month=&e_day=
Winona Daily News 10/27