Milwaukee, WI

Fuel Cafe isn’t the type of place to have lunch with your visiting mother, unless she likes her music loud, her coffee brutally strong, and her transportation with only two wheels. Fuel is not for everyone, but it’s hard to imagine Riverwest without it.

Fuel is practically a showcase for the neighborhood’s diversity. Stop by and you will see purple-haired girls knitting, young couples huddled over crosswords, students typing on laptops, and bikers of all types comparing rides. Even the staff can’t be pinned down to one category, although I swear tattoos are a prerequisite.

From the windows splattered with flyers, to the wall of motorcycle photos, and the regular displays of artwork, Fuel explodes with the creative sensibility of pure rock ‘n’ roll. It’s the perfect place to nail down that latest sketch, pen the latest chapter of a never-ending novel, or hone your Sonic Youth vs The Pixies debate. Just make sure to order something first.

Whether you prefer your caffeinated kick by the mug or pint, Fuel only serves the best coffee around - Alterra. In addition to a full line of specialty coffee drinks, they offer a number teas and natural juices. Drinks are fine, but if you want the full experience you will have to pick up a menu.

There must be some magical force at work in Fuel’s kitchen. How else could they turn bread, cheese, and tomatoes into an unforgettable experience? Yes, the food is that good. Whether you’re a carnivore or a vegan, Fuel has a sandwich just for you. As an added bonus, each one comes with a side of tortilla chips.

Fuel Cafe is about as far from a quiet, black-tie restaurant as you can possibly get. It is definitely not a place for a romantic evening with a loved one. Fuel Cafe is the place you go to meet up with friends, make some new ones, and enjoy some of the best food the area has to offer.

Fuel Cafe Website
Hours and Location:
Mon-Thur 7am-10pm
Friday 7am-11pm
Saturday 8am-11pm
Sunday 8am-10pm

818 E Center St
Milwaukee, WI 53202

We Milwaukeeans can be a prideful bunch. Take us on a trip to any other city and you’re likely to hear an awful lot of, “In Milwaukee, [insert bragging comment here].” Sure there is the occasional person who longs for the likes New York or San Francisco, but we generally stand firm in our convictions.

Of course, this tends to cause some friction every now and then with our state’s other well-known city - Madison. The Milwaukee vs Madison debate is an old one, but also one in which everyone seems to have an opinion. I have had some experience living in both cities, and I have a few thoughts of my own. I never intended to bring up the topic, but after taking a trip back to Madison this weekend, I just can’t help myself.

So here it is, my unofficial list of ways in which each city tops the other. (more…)

The gaming site, HonestGamers.com recently posted an event notice that should be of interest to all the gamers of Milwaukee.

The Midwest Gaming Classic is coming to Oconomowoc. This is the midwest’s largest gaming convention, but don’t go expecting exclusive game demos, otherworldly booth designs, or game designers signing autographs. The Midwest Gaming Classic is a straightforward event that caters to the old-schoolers out there.

The number one reason to check out the Midwest Gaming Classic is the wall to wall arcade machines, pinball machines, and nearly every console and handheld system ever made. The best part is that they’re all free to play.

If you crave a little competition, the event offers six different classes of pinball tournaments, and perhaps one of the first sponsored Shmup (shoot-em-up) tournaments in the US. Of course, each event offers a variety of prizes, from game consoles to cash. There will even be a Nintendo Wii being raffled off.

The cost to attend the event is $10 for a single-day pass, $20 for a two-day pass, and $2-5 per entry into the tournaments. It only happens once a year, so get your friends together, make some matching t-shirts, and go prove your ultimate dorkdom. I know I’ll try to be there.

It happens week after week, month after month. You call up some friends, they want to hang out, but none of you can come up with anything to do. So there you are, bored at the same old spots as always. This is where I come in, to offer you my top picks for things to do. Hence, Boredom Relief.

*Note: Bad things happened, my hand is swollen, and I really don’t feel like typing. I’ll give you a few ideas for now, but look forward to a more complete list tomorrow.*

Friday 5/18
Attacked by the ’90s @ Stonefly Brewery
Man oh man… when did I get so old? It’s almost hard to believe there are already tributes to the ’90s going on. I don’t know if this is serious, nostalgic, or ironically funny, but it sure is tempting. DJs Old Man Malcolm and Emmarose certainly have the skills to pull it off.
Stonefly Brewery
735 E Center St

Now, I know you want to see this sexy mofo spinning some records.

Saturday 5/19
Coming Soon…. *ow, my hand*

When most people cut down an alley, they only see heaps of unwanted trash and green bins stuffed with garbage. As an avid cyclist, it can sometimes feel like a trip through death row. Go down enough alleys and you will inevitably see a mass of bent spokes, a rusted frame, or a pair of handlebars poking out of the debris. Every week there seems to be a new pile of bikes waiting for the scrappers, or worse, to be forgotten in a landfill. Every week, a new bike waiting to be saved.

If you haven’t noticed already, Milwaukee has a huge biking community. Go out on a sunny day and you’ll see kids riding to the park, mountain bikers heading to the trails, fitness enthusiasts on perfectly tuned machines, and college students racing to classes. Unfortunately, most people don’t know the first thing about bike maintenance, and when a problem arises, many assume their bikes have reached the end of the road. Instead of seeking repair, they ride their bikes into the ground, toss them out, and buy a new one. As outrageous as it sounds, I once stopped someone who was going to trash his one year old bike because it had a flat tire.

Not only is this a matter of unnecessary waste, but many bikers like myself want those bikes for parts. Last summer I set out to make a new road bike as cheaply as possible. Having a decent bike doesn’t always entail throwing down a few hundred dollars on brand new equipment.
Frame – a 1980s Schwinn sanded and repainted.
Handlebars – from a beach cruiser, chopped and flipped upside down.
Cranks and chainwheel – found by the road, caked with rust. Removed the rust to reveal a gorgeous chrome finish.
Seat – traded for a $100 racing model. Fixed a small tear with superglue. (more…)

Disgusting.

It’s the only word that seems to perfectly describe the tragic event that claimed the life of one person Monday night. At roughly 8:20 p.m., a 26 year old man was walking down N. 29th St. An SUV pulled up and as many as five assailants opened fire, but it wasn’t the young man’s life that was lost that night.

Shootings and drive-bys are nothing new to Milwaukee, especially for that particular neighborhood. In reality, they are almost regular occurrences, but reality hits so much harder when the only victim is a 4 year old girl named Jasmine Owens.

Mayor Tom Barrett said it best:

“A 4-year-old girl died last night. A 4-year-old girl was shot and killed last night in our city. … Some gutless thug decided he would solve his problem by shooting a 4-year-old girl. What a tough guy. He can brag about that to all of his buddies, that he took out a 4-year-old girl.”

What troubles me the most is not that these men set out to kill someone that night. It is the fact that they couldn’t be bothered to drive around the block one more time, or even wait until their target was another 10 steps forward. How anyone can hold so little value for the life of a child is utterly beyond my comprehension.

Some will say that Jasmine Owens was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. I dread to think that this type of violence has a right place or a right time.

Jasmine Owens

Apparently, not everyone feels the same way as me when in comes to the music lineup for Summerfest. Ciara, T-Pain, and Chris Brown are already scheduled to perform. Yesterday, the heavy-hitting Ludacris was announced as a headliner for the Marcus Ampitheater on July 1st. Good idea? Dan of WISN-AM certainly doesn’t think so. In fact, he made his own logo for that day of Summerfest - a frowning face with a bullet in the head.

Am I the only one who finds this the slightest bit racist? Dan doesn’t hide his unfamiliarity with Ludacris. He watched one music video and made his assumptions that someone is going to get shot that day. What did Dan see? Not much except a black man throwing rhymes in a club. Sure the song can be offensive, but all Dan’s attitude says is that when black people get together, someone is going to die.

Ludacris is just the kind of act that Summerfest needs. I already gave my praises to the powers that be for bringing some modern rock and punk bands to the stage. Why should rap be excluded? Because black people might show up for the festivities? Before you make assumptions about a community of people, make sure you know something about them. You may not like someone’s choice of music, fashion, or dialogue, but that doesn’t make it wrong - just different.

I have a confession that may sound downright heretical. I don’t like Summerfest.

I tried to enjoy it. For many years in fact. But try as I may, I simply never understood the appeal. It’s not like Summerfest is a bazaar of strange goods and unique delicacies that appears on the outskirts of a backwoods town. It’s smack dab in the middle of Milwaukee, where I can travel 5 minutes in any direction and buy better pizza, colder beer, and real works of art for half the price. All this without having to go into a bathroom where I have to pretend that the liquid on the floor is water.

What about the music?

I like rock ‘n’ roll, but you won’t find the classics of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Alice Cooper, or John Mellencamp anywhere near my CD player. Go ahead and call me close-minded, but I’m 26 years old. To put it in perspective, how many of you over the age of 40 listen to Cole Porter, Benny Goodman, or Johnny Mercer? Summerfest always has a huge selection of music to choose from, but 95% of it isn’t relevant to my generation. As for the other 5%, most of them are either kitschy flavor of the month acts, or out of my budget and playing in the Ampitheater.

With Summerfest barely two months away, I was prepared to chalk it up as another missed event. Then a friend to told me this morning to check out the Summerfest website. Someone out there must finally be listening to the cries of angsty teens and jaded twenty-somethings. Sure we still get the likes of Styx and Foreigner, but we also get Wolfmother, Shiny Toy Guns, Built to Spill, Social Distortion, Augustana, and my favorite, Rise Against. The best part is that these aren’t even the Marcus Ampitheater performers. Toss some hip-hop, folk rock, and classic rock acts into the mix, and this is shaping up to be the first Summerfest that truly does have something for everyone.