It's National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. And no one knows better than the staff at Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc how important it is to promote education about eating disorders.

Statistics show that eating disorders including anorexia and bulimia have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness - but only 10% of those affected by it seek treatment. Only 35% receive treatment at a specialized facility. For adolescent females aged 15 to 24, anorexia's death rate is 12 times higher than any other cause of death.

Dr. Tracey Cornella-Carlson, MD, CEDS is the medical director of the child and adolescent eating disorder programs at Rogers Memorial Hospital, which was the first facility in the nation to offer specialized treatment to men and boys suffering from eating disorders.

She sat down with OnMilwaukee.com to weigh in on common misconceptions about the disease that 24 million Americans suffer from.

OnMilwaukee.com: Many people point the finger at the media for drilling the ideals of "perfection" into the population. Do you agree or disagree with that?

Tracey Cornella-Carlson: I would say I disagree and agree. I think that many teenage patients that I deal with tell me that they are bothered by the media and those messages that are sent. However, we do know that all of us are exposed to the media and not everyone develops an eating disorder. So I would say that it takes a predisposition to have an eating disorder, in conjunction with many different triggers, in order to produce an eating disorder. People themselves are likely perfectionists who develop an eating disorder. But the media doesn’t cause eating disorders.

OMC: Is an eating disorder more about self-image or more about control?

TCC: An eating disorder is about both self-image and control. Many teenagers will start dieting in an attempt to improve their self esteem or feel better about themselves. They may have been teased or bullied about being overweight, and that’s one way they t…

Help local musician Roxi Copland win $10,000! The Milwaukee-based singer-songwriter is currently ranked No. 3 in ArtistSignal’s February competition. Her soul-infused jazz/pop sound has garnered over 16,000 votes so far.

For those of you who don’t know, ArtistSignal is a pretty cool social media platform that allows users to sign in with their Facebook accounts, search and discover new artists from around the world and cast votes for their favorite. The month's winner gets a check for $10,000 - and Copland is closing in on the competition.

A native of Aberdeen, Wash., Copland grew up in the same town as legendary Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. "His family lived just a few blocks away from us," she recalls. "While I was certainly aware of the grunge scene, I was more interested in other genres of music during that time."

Music was a lifelong passion for Copland, who began studying classical piano at the age of four and often accompanied her trumpet-playing father to jazz festivals as a child. Though her family was supportive of her love for music, she was always leery of making it her occupation.

"I’d been warned in no uncertain terms by a dozen members of my family and well-meaning friends that you simply can’t make a living in music, it would be foolish to try and it’s a crazy lifestyle to boot," she says.

So she attended Grinnell College in Iowa, double-majoring in music and international law. During a stint in London interning in Parliament, she missed playing the music so badly that she would sneak into churches to play their pianos.

"After graduation, I was all packed up, ready to drive home to Washington State and take the LSAT," she says. "I was out at a winery listening to some friends perform, and they invited me up on stage to sit in and sing with them. As I was singing, I looked over and saw a guy holding his cell phone up to the speaker. The same guy walked up to me after I finished and offered me a job as a back-up vocalist for a top-40 c…

We all love our bar crawls here in Milwaukee. But what about a music crawl?

Over 50 bands. More than 25 local businesses. One street. One day. $15. And you get a fanny pack included in ticket price. Come on. You don't have to admit it, but I know you secretly want that fanny pack.

ART Milwaukee is partnering with Eastside businesses to present the first Eastside Music Tour on Brady Street next Saturday, March 2. Local bands and DJs will set up shop in venues (some of them unexpected ones) and perform from 4 to 11 p.m. The goal is to highlight Milwaukee's vibrant music scene while raising money to repaint the Cass Street School creatures.

"We are extremely excited about the opportunity to showcase Milwaukee’s thriving music scene along with the local shops of Brady Street," said Jeremy Fojut, president and founder of ART Milwaukee, in a press release. "Guests are encouraged to visit coffee shops, retailers, restaurants and more and immerse themselves with great music, food and we hope to encourage a large buy local campaign."

Local eateries, watering holes and coffee shops like Rochambo, Crisp, Jo-Cats, the Up and Under Pub, World of Beer and Casablanca are just a few places where attendees can catch musical acts like Fresh Cut Collective, Evan Christian, All Good Things and Fatty Acids. See the full line-up here.

Tickets don't ensure admission to every event, though, due to capacity issues, so each venue is first-come, first-serve.

The $15 ticket package includes a fanny pack, access to every show (if capacity allows) and discounts on food and beverages. For $25 you get all that and a T-shirt.

Everyone can agree: race – and racism – is one touchy subject. But it’s not something that the Milwaukee Repertory Theater – especially under the artistic direction of Mark Clements – has ever shied away from addressing.

This season, The Rep tackles race again – this time with comedy. Clements directs "Clybourne Park," which opened Jan. 29 at the Quadracci Powerhouse.

"Clybourne Park," written by Bruce Norris, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and London’s Olivier Award for Best Play, and tells a familiar story from a different point of view: the neighborhood where the black Younger family of Lorraine Hansberry’s "A Raisin in the Sun" attempts to purchase a house. The narrative looks at the neighborhood in 1959, and then fast-forwards 50 years to 2009, with the same actors playing different characters residing in the neighborhood.

Gerard Neugent has been acting with the Milwaukee Rep for 10 years, six of them as a member of the Resident Acting Company. He sat down with OnMilwaukee.com to talk about why it makes sense to approach a controversial subject like race in a comedic way.

OnMilwaukee.com: What’s it like to play Karl Lindner, a character that is not original to this play but to the beloved "A Raisin in the Sun?"

Gerard Neugent: "A Raisin in the Sun" is a jumping-off point. All of the stakes, except for Karl’s, are specific to this play. In "A Raisin in the Sun" they bought a house and in Clybourne Park they sell the house. He (Karl) tries so hard to do it diplomatically, but when you get right down to brass tacks it is what it is: he doesn’t want a black family to move into his neighborhood. And the reasons why, he would explain, are because they wouldn’t fit in, or the property values would go down – whatever they (the reasons) are in 1959 Chicago, he’s telling it like it is. It’s just a shame that he feels that way.

So to take that guy and then jump into this, it’s thrilling to me, in a way, to be able to be that guy. But what’…