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Photo of a Black man, Reggie, wearing a navy-blue windbreaker over a grey sweatshirt hoodie. He sits on the edge of a moving truck's deck that is partly covered by a black tarp. Inside the truck are several miscellaneous items like a teal blanket and black and yellow storage container.

What do we owe each other?

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Politics
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January 26, 2026
Reggie and Anne navigate life without housing after the closure of Dairy Drive.
About Tone Madison

Madison’s fiercely independent voice on culture and politics.

Our journalist-owned, reader-supported publication highlights the neglected corners of Madison’s cultural landscape, elevates vital viewpoints from the left, and pulls off ambitious reporting projects. We champion things we love, but we also ask annoying questions and throw the occasional brick.

Latest in Music
A composite banner of the cover art from each of the 20 selected releases is displayed on a pale violet background.
Tone Madison’s favorite records of 2025
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Music
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January 20, 2026
A celebration of 20 local releases that defined the year.
The Spine Stealers' Kate Ruland (left) and Emma O'Shea (right) are shown in their Madison studio, standing next to a carefully-curated postcard collection that's housed in a wood stand.
Madison’s musical odds and ends of 2025
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Microtones
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January 16, 2026
A meditation on the past year’s musical margins.
A composite banner of the cover art from each of the 20 selected releases is displayed on a baby-blue background.
Tone Madison’s favorite songs of 2025
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Music
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January 14, 2026
A sampling of the local music that helped us get through the year.
Latest in Film
Simple rectangular image collage of four film stills. At the top left, teenager Willa (Chase Infiniti) practices shooting an assault rifle in an open field in "One Battle After Another." At the top right, thirtysomething parent J.B. Mooney (Josh O'Connor) scopes out the Framingham Art Museum before he plans a robbery in "The Mastermind." At the bottom left, teenager Kyle (Jackson Sluiter) skates through the suburbs of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. At the bottom right, frazzled mother Linda (Rose Byrne) stops for a moment at her motel after visiting the convenience store in "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You."
One movie meditation after another: toiling through 2025
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Film
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January 21, 2026
Nine writers processed these trying times through cinema, at the theaters and at home.
A still taken from Nicholas R. Wootton's experimental short "Liking This Angle" shows a woman holding up a plaster mold of a human arm on an angled wooden structure in an art studio. A second image of water streaking down a windshield is superimposed over it.
“Liking This Angle” finds artistic inspiration in degrees of the edit
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Film
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January 19, 2026
Nicholas R. Wootton’s experimental short, featuring sculptor Christina A. West, premieres at Art Lit Lab as part of Project Projection on January 21.
In a spacious and opulent house, two sisters stand at a medium shot in a sunlit room and look out to the right (through an unseen window). Both women have dark brown hair that is pulled back. They also both wear comfortable, long-sleeve clothing.
Evaluating tenderness and depth of family dynamics in “Sentimental Value”
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Film
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December 10, 2025
Grant Phipps and Lance Li argue in favor of and against the artistic framework of Joachim Trier’s latest psychological family drama.