Mil Wau Kee

Peace begins with a gentle smile…. Thich Nhat Hahn
When I pull into a new city I love to haul my bike out of the Astro and hit the streets. I Look for some local intheknower ‘s (could be a new word?) and start asking questions. I base my assessment on the city on 3 key measuring tools. I feel these three will give me everything I will need to know and how long I will stay. Well maybe not everything but it’s a great start!

1. Music Scene
2. Burrito Joints
3. Buddhist community

Because I was famished when I got into Milwaukee I started with Burrito’s. The first guy I asked just returned from the Brewer’s game and was hammered; he pointed north and mumbled something about a Q. The next girl said I’m a vegetarian I don’t eat burritos??? The 3rd kid went to Marquette and gave me spot on directions adding “they are open till 3am!!!” The path led me down along the waterfront of Lake Michigan where there is a huge park and museums. The burrito shop, Qdoba is a regional chain with a pretty stale environment, but the burrito was huge and with a plethora of hot sauce it hit the spot and it was only 5 bucks not bad.
The Music Scene is strong and it seems like it is getting stronger. Over the weekend it hosted The Squirrel Nut Zippers, Zappa does Zappa, Galactic and has a huge list of local clubs, major venues and outdoor shows. Looking at my budget I opted for a free show at the Jazz Estate with Matt Hendricks. A cool little joint, dark and smokey with a bunch of local hipsters. Matt played an old steal acoustic that was signed by Honey Boy Williams and John Hammond. He played some covers and originals, he reminded me of Tab Beniot from Louisiana. He played one instrumental he called serenade that he wrote on his honeymoon but now is a sad song because of his divorce. I asked him at the break why he got divorced; he said she wanted kids and walked back on stage and started playing again… woops.

I visited two Buddhist centers. One was the Milwaukee Mindfulness Center. Their teacher happens to be Thich Nhat Hahn. It was a group of about 20 folks. We did a seating meditation for about 20 minutes then a walking meditation for 10 then back to a sit. The center is on a major road and I listened to the traffic whizzing by, I didn’t stay for the discussion as I had tickets to see the Brewers play the Giants! Barry Bonds was, in Milwaukee could he hit 2 dingers and tie the record? Nope he didn’t even play. But it was a good game and I got a chance to talk to Bob Uekers body guard! Your know Bob from his part in Major League and Mr. Belvidere.

Milwaukee is a great city! Blue collar feel, people are very friendly I met some real characters. Jim who’s band toured in support of the Meat Puppets back in the 90’s and Don a retired motivational speaker with a walking staff that is the mother of all walking staffs. The city has lots of local breweries, but I was dismayed when I saw the Pabst brewery in complete shambles, deserted and being torn down, sorry folks: PBR is now brewed at Miller. A sad day…..

On my way to Madison the capital of Wisconsin and home of the Badgers!