Point Made

One thing I wanted to do this year is to use my skills as a writer to help perform public service. What is it they say? Be careful what you wish for. As previous posts have pointed out, I'm writing a column for UrbanMilwaukee.com. I'm also writing a three-part series on How To Become A Bus Driver For MCTS, to be published on their online newsletter, Rider Insider. I recently (literally moments ago) completed a long-promised obituary for a close friend. I promised to do it before she died. No rush as long as she didn't involve herself in an accident. The lady is as fit as pair skinny jeans. Then there is always a manuscript of my fiction work at hand. I love writing fiction for a lot of reasons. The one I cite most often is the ability to kill someone and not have suffered the consequence of the act. But honestly, most writers would admit they write for themselves, and while all of us would love to be successfully read and enriched by the effort, we'll write regard...

When I wrote a few lines about the effect my Mother-in-laws passing had on me, Pamela, a friend in excellent standing, wrote to me that she wished I would write her eulogy. One catch, I was asked to write it while she was alive. (Full disclosure: Pam offered to write mine in payment.) Missing the Email Queen I can quickly get into the proper state of mind for this task because I had lost my more frequent contact with Pam when Maria and I moved to Louisiana. Pam is a couple of things to me that are probably obvious but compelling to mention in a piece like this. Her intelligence, charm, and energy are right out in front of her like a family coat-of-arms. Older people are frequently leaning on their age and purported wisdom to form opinions. Pam prefers to stay informed with new information. As a community activist, she often resisted taking on more than a behind the throne activism as for her role. However, her work ethic and stubborn determinism betrayed her to the whi...

If there is one thing I know for sure is the words my friend, Anne Wilde, gave me several years ago. She said, "You can just feel it when you're in the place where you belong." Those words echoed in my head when I decided to move back to Milwaukee. But more than just feeling as if I was in a comfortable place, I knew I had to become part of this place. I couldn't just sit back and watch the game. I realized from my experience in Appleton that I have some facility for writing, that is beyond my fantasy that I write compelling fiction. I have to give a shout out to Jon Croce, publisher of Appleton Monthly Magazine, for that opportunity. Since coming back to Milwaukee, I have been given a chance to write for Urban Milwaukee, which is a digital news source that is widely read and respected. My editor at Urban Milwaukee is Bruce Murphey, who is not only publishing my work but helping to make me a far better writer. My first article for Urban Milwaukee. Also, I'm...

I believe it was a broadcaster, Howard Cosell during a game on Monday Night Football that used the phrase "the frozen tundra' when referring to Lambeau field where our Green Bay Packers play their home games. Now the monicker is widely used to describe the area of northeastern Wisconsin. While it may do the job of depicting their weather for a couple of months a year the tundra is hardly frozen for most of the year and this year hardly at all. Full disclosure, since I live in Milwaukee not even Howard Cosell would say we are residents of the Frozen Tundra. We are cautioned not to blame yearly weather events to climate change, it takes an average of many seasons to allow meaningful conjecture, this year reeks of change. We started the snow season with a modest but record snowfall in October only to be followed by unusual above-average temperatures in November, December and now even into January. Low accumulations of snow fell in a number of valleys in the up and down fron...

The Movie Marriage Story Why I shouldn't have watched it and why I'm glad I did Maybe someone who has recently gone through his third divorce shouldn't see this powerful film about a couple navigating their split up and (spoiler) eventual divorce, but I did. Charlie, Adam Driver, an avant-garde theater director, and his actress wife, Nicole played by Scarlet Johansson are going through a divorce. Her career is been shelved to support his career. Nicole was getting a lot of attention in Hollywood for her performance in a breakout film, when she met, fell in love with and became Charlie's muse. In the next few years, they worked together for his success. While Nicole got recognition for her contributions to the effort, it was not necessarily a gratifying career. She gets an opportunity to do a pilot for a TV series. Nicole not only wants to do the pilot, which Charlie obviously thinks is beneath her talent, but she has to move to Los Angeles and is taking their son...