Articles & Essays

WMSE - 91.7FM • 5th March 2025

CLEM SNIDE - SHANK HALL - 3/4/25

Concert Review:
"Clem Snide is a Generous but Sloppy Lover"
His spindly body half-anointed upon a barstool, the lefty launched into the first of his trapeze acts, singeing the lines, providing his own background vocals, armed with only an acoustic guitar and voice...

Milwaukee Record • 16th January 2025

Ocean of tenderness: Watching the NFL playoffs on mute

Essay:
I watch NFL on mute, with music of my choice bumping. to experience the twisted barbary of an NFL broadcast: I watched the Raven/Steeler game, with Derrick Henry stiff-arming to the crescendo of “Deep Distance” by Ashra off their 1977 release New Age Of Earth...

Milwaukee Record • 9th October 2024

Hey MPS: More Montessori, please

In these critical four years of adolescence, our children are forced to sit still, raise their hand to request permission to use the restroom, be silent, and keep their eyes on the teacher. How does the leadership style of Command and Control prepare our teens for living their future lives? My hope is that MPS schools adopt Montessori as their curriculum and do it soon. Command and Control serves no child, only the adults who command.

Milwaukee Record • 31st July 2024

Dispatch from Route 66: Honest Abe & Mother Jones

Article 2 in a 5-Part Series I wrote during the RNC in MKE for Milwaukee Record: "Things are getting weirder than weird in American politics so two Milwaukeeans choose to follow Route 66 to remember, to recharge, and to take pilgrimage at the Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan Centers in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Will the road lead them to something better?"

Milwaukee Record • 26th July 2024

Dispatch from Route 66: Fictional Podcasts & Civil Wars

Article 3 in a 5-Part Series I wrote for Milwaukee Record: “There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false...as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?”

Milwaukee Record • 18th July 2024

Dispatch from Route 66: Escape from MKE: The Road Narrows

Article 4 in a 5-Part Series: This trip is about escaping Milwaukee, but the gravitational pull is too much...I wake to worse news out of Milwaukee: a man shot dead by police in King Park. Neighboring the school I hold most dear, King Park will be forever reformatted in my mind...

Milwaukee Record • 17th July 2024

On the Run from RNC: Final Dispatch from Route 66: A Direction Home?

Article 5 in a 5-Part Series I wrote for Milwaukee Record: To our Milwaukee: I understand I left you in your week of need. Instead we escaped via Route 66 to Tulsa, Oklahoma, the home of Woody Guthrie’s and Bob Dylan’s archives. We hoped the road would lead to something better…did it happen?

Milwaukee Record • 15th July 2024

On The Run From RNC: Dispatches from Route 66, Day 1: American Giants

Things are getting weirder than weird as the Republican National Convention invades Milwaukee, so two forlorn Milwaukeeans are choosing to follow Route 66 to remember, to recharge...