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The “discovery” functionality on Spotify can be a hash mistress. I’m not sure I love it, and it rarely loves me back. People are constantly recommending albums to me, but Spotify does it with a reckless impunity.
I met Elmer at one of those career day things at an elementary school. There was the fireman, I was the radio guy, and Elmer was the entrepreneur. The set up was that you’d go into a classroom, you give your speech to the kids for ten minutes, they ask some questions, or don’t, then you move along to the next classroom. I thought I was going to have an easy gig.
“Plants are nature’s alchemists, expert at transforming water, soil and sunlight into an array of precious substances, many of them beyond the ability of human beings to conceive, much less manufacture.” – Michael Pollan
I worked at JC Penney in 1982. Employee #750. Yes, I still remember. My department was ground zero for the sales of hundreds of Sony Walkmen – the first cassette version – and my cash register was where hundreds of small town Wisconsinites (in Beloit, specifically) went home with the culinary wonders of the revolutionary microwave oven.
I read an article a few years back about how shopping at IKEA was a sign you weren’t really an adult yet. But, if you shopped at West Elm, that was it. Frankly, I think you’re stupid if you trade one for the other and I am vehemently opposed to the assertion your worth comes from which home decor store you are financially able to shop at.
Social media is a roller coaster ride that never lets you get off.
When I met Dan Atkinson in his studio on Vliet Street, I was fully expecting to discuss his work making planters out of cream city brick. And, while we certainly talked about that, the things that inform Dan’s world and his work turned out to be much more wide-ranging and multi-faceted.
Imagine this bizarre and twisted fantasy: Aliens from another galaxy finally decide to show themselves, (sadly after Art Bell has passed away) and they lower their frisbee-like spaceship towards Milwaukee. And imagine that they happen upon Mondo Lucha in its full ridiculous and insane spectacle.
In the pantheon of pop/rock music there are only a handful of iconic duos – those whose voices mesh together seamlessly, whose songwriting and approach perfectly complement each other, who sang as if some kind of magic wand tapped them on the vocal cords at birth and made it so. There is Lennon & McCartney, Simon & Garfunkel, Phil and Don Everly, and I submit, Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer of the Posies.
There was a something happening in the late 60s and early 70s where bands – and a whole bunch of them – found their own voice very quickly. When you consider that Led Zeppelin came out of the woodwork with a sound no one had heard before, taking traditional blues and blowing the cover off of it making it their own, they in many ways didn’t invent hard rock; they invented a sound that can only be described, simply, as Led Zeppelin.
If Lebron James joined the Milwaukee Bucks, it would change the course of a franchise — most likely from “up and coming” to “arrived.” But how would each NBA team woo Lebron? Sports media giant ESPN wanted to know so they commissioned an artist in every NBA city to create a billboard wooing the king
There’s a certain sadness when a beloved restaurant closes, not dissimilar to what it feels like to read a book you become completely immersed in only to have its events and characters leave your life with the turn of the last page. To celebrate our two year anniversary, my boyfriend and I had dinner at Circa 1880.
It’s hard to say whether or not my job found me or I found it. There’s a great possibility that some divine power above chose to marry two desperate situations into one, creating both a powerhouse duo (if I do say so myself) and a killer friendship. Talent casting is not a business most find themselves in, and when I woke up with the job, I was surprised to myself there.
Harmony guitar parts and beautiful layered melodies are popping out of the speakers in my Volkswagen and I sadly cannot take my hands off the wheel to air drum for even a second. That is, until I get to a stoplight and the person in the car next to me looks at me look I’m having a fit.
When was the last time you had the chance to truly live in the moment? A month ago I honestly couldn’t tell you, despite an effort to meditate and be more mindful of my present. I was fortunate enough to recently take a two-week break from my normal life and experience...
Ian McCullough has released 11 albums since 2006. Every one of those albums was released on his birthday, April 27. This is not by accident, as he explains, quite sensibly, that people gravitate towards you on your birthday. The hypothetical conversation as you could imagine would go something like this…
I want to talk about fungi. I know, I know. “But, Caitlin, what could possibly be interesting about fungi?” The better question is what ISN’T interesting about fungi? I have decided to share a couple hundred words on fungi with you all.
At night, the most iconic part of Milwaukee’s skyline rests in the background in the dark. You can see its shape, lifeless, and sometimes the moon (when it’s not obstructed by clouds) shines on the yellow beams to just give it a hint of existence.