It's hard to believe there's much left for directors to say about loneliness and alienation in films by now. But, perhaps thanks to its Finnish accent, Aki Kaurismaki's "Lights in the Dusk," which screens this week at UWM's Union Theatre, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd., is a compelling film.

Koistenen is a sad sack security guard who draws taunts from his fellow workers, is desperate for love and appears to have no friends (except for the woman who runs the chipper van) and few prospects for improving his dull, emotionally barren life.

He lives in modern Finland, a thriving place, which the director likes to point out via scene-setting shots amid modern skyscrapers and new-looking housing developments. But Koistenen isn't reaping much in the way of financial or social benefits. However, despite his bare bones existence, he still dreams of starting his own business and talks about turning his life around.

But a local gangster has other ideas and uses a femme fatale as bait to pull of a theft and frame Koistenen for it. Just when things couldn't seem to get worse for our poor hero, they do. But how bad will things have to get for Koistenen to finally say "uncle?"

Although wrapped in a depressing cloak, "Lights in the Dusk" is a hopeful film.

It plays Friday, Nov. 30 at 9 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 2 at 5 p.m. On the same nights (at 7 p.m. Friday, at 5 and 9 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday) is "I Don't Want to Sleep Alone," the new feature film from Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang.

Admission is $5, $4 for students. 

Newark, N.J. -- I've noticed this in the past and it's clear to me now, again, thanks to a seven-hour layover at Liberty International Airport in Newark, across the Hudson River from Manhattan. It's always obvious when a Milwaukee-bound flight is about to board.

Maybe this is true for everyone regardless of their hometown, but I've also lived in New York and I can't say I've noticed it of flights headed to the Big Apple. An hour or so before a Milwaukee-bound flight departs, the gate suddenly fills with people in sweat pants, Packers T-shirts and our beloved Milwaukee accent, loaded as it is with traits derived from our Polish and German ancestors.

It's something that to be proud of. We're a distinct breed, us Milwaukeeans. We have our own style, our own voice, our own certain something. We can recognize each other easily. It's a bond.

Waiting for my flight for a long time -- just down the concourse from the Miller Brewhouse -- I saw planes depart from the same gate for St. Louis, Charlotte, Providence and other locations. Before boarding, most people sat talking, dozing or reading. But before the Milwaukee flight, all eyes were on the TVs broadcasting a football game (sorry, fellow citizens, this is one interest I don't share, so I can't tell you who was playing).

And in true Milwaukee style, I saw at least two cases of people from Milwaukee unsuspectedly encountering acquaintances from here. As I tried to explain to one person in Italy, Milwaukee is only slightly smaller than Turin, but it feels like America's biggest small town. It's rare to go anywhere here and not run into someone you know.

Riverwest's Lotus Land Records, one of the best record shops in town in a long time, celebrates seven years on Center Street with a party down the block at The Mad Planet, 533 E. Center St., on Saturday, Dec. 1.

The 9 p.m. event, which is free, features Chalice in the Palace DJs, Lotus Land's own Andy Noble and Kid Millions on the wheels of steel, along with free food, giveaways and more.

 

Alessandria, Italy -- Even if Italian-Americans aren't rare in Milwaukee, ones with roots in the Piemonte region of northwest Italy are fairly hard to come by. Other than some who arrived here via other cities -- like me -- there is only a group of the descendants of emigrants from the Canavese area near Turin that arrived a century ago to work in the Bay View rolling mill and a few modern migrants living here for work reasons.

So, when people outside of Brew City see that I've got a Web site about the region and do a lot of work to promote the Piemontese culture, they are perhaps rightfully surprised. Because, here, I'm part of a very small club.

Over the weekend, at the Third International Conference of the Piemontesi in the World, held in Alessandria, Italy, I met like-minded people from pretty much everywhere. There were Piemontesi from South Africa, China, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Russia and seemingly everywhere in between; 19 countries in all. Besides me, representing the U.S. were folks from New York, San Francisco and San Diego.

This tower of Babel was united in most cases by the Italian language -- which was the language of the conference -- but in almost every case by the Piemontese language, in all its glorious dialects, from the "official" Turin-based tongue, to the dialects from provinces like Alessandria, Asti and Novara.

At the closing dinner on Saturday, I brought along three friends from the group Ariondassa, which has played twice in Milwaukee -- at Festa Italiana 2005 and 2006 -- and the event was transformed from a nice dinner to a rousing sing-along and dance in the style of the region's traditional "piola" or taverns, where music always was served alongside a bottle of Barbera.

For two short days we were all home together, in the land of our ancestors and our contemporary cousins, and we showed the Piemontesi in Piemonte that although we've moved away, we haven't forgotten our history.…