You Ain't Lyin' About Milkwaukee

This is the Milwaukee glow coming off my cheeks and slight beer belly. Milwaukee gets the vote in our house. We stayed there an extra day because our home away from home host was in an art fair just off the steps of the Milwaukee Art Museum--a pretty damn fine museum. We slept in a room just beyond her downstairs studio and in the morning we walked around her paint splattered soft table and admired the walls of print cut-outs that she designed.

If that isn't lucky enough, someone packed Milwaukee with cute bars and artisan beer. And the bartenders know how to pour beer. (The whole place is like a pre-corporate Denver.) The do it yourself, artisan, artsy, and crafty atmosphere was warm and, well, plentiful. The Sparrow Collective was really cool and I bought some wall decals for my bare apartment, all the while wishing that we had a collective like that back home. Today I breakfasted at Alterra, a massive coffee shop, where I overheard some elderly folk talking about health care.

Look, if you're looking for a fun weekend place to go, go to Milwaukee. Look, if you're looking for a fun brewery tour, take the Lakefront tour. Look, if you're looking for a place to start over, a place with thriving industry, a place where you could find all the poets hanging out in Woodland Pattern, go to Milwaukee. Local artists attend poetry readings, held in one of the most beautiful apartments I've ever seen. Milwaukee is mystically unique.