Brennan’s Blog

Starting in September the 6 in the City group will be meeting every Friday once again after only meeting monthly this Summer. I have only made one event before the Summer started, so I am glad it it is getting back to the weekly schedule. Because, you know I cannot go out for a drink unless there is a very good reason.

The Rosebud has a midnight show which features several great movies, including "The Big Lebowski" and "Fight Club."

I find both movies are disconnected from reality which makes for a great movie. When I watch "Fight Club" I find myself in an altered state of mind for a while. After seeing "The Big Lebowski" I wonder why more people cannot live as laid back as The Dude, or the Dudereeno if you are not into that whole brevity thing.

One detail which I have taken with me since seeing "The Big Lebowski" as an appreciation of decorative rugs. I have a large rug which I can place in a large room and I have smaller one which has been on my bathroom floor since I moved a few months ago. It really does pull the whole room together.

While out at the 6 in the City event at Hotel Metro last night I learned about another group called Your Tribe. Apparently it is a pretty active group with many events of all kinds. This weekend they have rafting, Tuesdays is Swing dancing and Thursday is a Wine Tasting. Next Saturday there is also a New Member Gathering, so I hope to attend that and meet more people who are in the club.

I met Cliff last night and he is a member. He runs a website called Who's Hot Milwaukee which is an interview magazine for Milwaukee. He is working to organize these various drinking clubs and promote the Milwaukee nightlife.

With all of these new condos being built and occupied and all of the new restaurants and great new bars in the area there is so much to do now in Milwaukee. This Summer is going to be jam packed with lots to do.

I recently move back to the East Side of Milwaukee which is nearby the Downtown area. I have been taking advantage of my new location and I have been actively seeking out new things to do.

I have really enjoyed the corner bars lately. The people who go there are much more friendly and approachable. And the drinks are more reasonbly priced. But there are also clubs in Milwaukee, essentially drinking clubs, which host various events at different bars just for the fun of getting people out to enjoy our local nightlife.

The ones I know about include Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM), The Thursday Night Drinking Club (TNDC), and one I just learned about last night, 6 in the City.

Everyone who works in Milwaukee should be familiar with YPM which is largely a business networking and social group which helps promote life in the Milwaukee area. Their charter is to give the young workers in Milwaukee with a social and business network to improve their work and personal lives. They can show that if a person moves to Milwaukee, like after college, and does not make friends within a few months they are likely to quit their job and move away. I have met so many fun people through YPM. Their events are always a lot of fun.

Next is TNDC. This group gets together once a month on a Thursday evening. The location is always changing. I have been to bars which I never considered going to because of this group, like Victor's and Bamboo Bob's. This group was started by a brother and sister combo who discovered a similar club down in Atlanta. It is strictly a fun group without any business affiliations beyond the bar for each event.

Finally, 6 is the City is a group which gets together every Friday. According to the website they are getting together tonight at Hotel Metro. I will have to go try it out. Several people at the YPM event last night told me about it and it sounds like another great club to join.

I have also started my own event, the Mixer at Shakers. I am a regular at Shakers and I decided that I wanted to throw a party and invite a bunch of my single friends. I told the owner at Shakers, Bob Weiss, that I wanted to host the event at the bar and he offered to provide free appetizers for the night. I started to tell people about the event and later Bob decided to also host a wine tasting. Another regular, Charlie, was interested and felt it would be great if his band would play for the evening. So now we have a live Jazz band, free food and wine. I also talked with Pam who owns Miss Groove on Brady and she offered to give us free prizes to give away. All in all it looks like it will turn out to be a great event. It will be on Wednesday the 18th starting at 6pm. And I hope to start hosting the mixer the 3rd Wednesday of every month at Shakers. So spread the word, and maybe I will see you out at 6 in the City tonight.

I have been planning The Spring Mixer at Shakers over the last few weeks. So far there are over 50 people on the invite list. Roughly 30 of them are old friends of mine or friends I have made recently. It looks like the list is starting to grow more quickly.

At the mixer there will be free food, a wine tasting, live music, contests and prizes. There should be plenty to do for everyone. I am using evite.com to manage the invitations and RSVPs. It is an open invite, so feel free to view the invite and put yourself on the list. And be sure to invite a few friends of your own.

Perhaps as a sign of me getting out and about and a bit so much lately I was told my photo is in the Journal Sentinel in the Q section. I guess I am at some bar in the photo. I suppose it was when I was at the YPM event at the Lady Bug Club. Then again it could be many places, like County Clare, Red Light, Points East Pub, The Tracks, Packy's or even Shakers. All great places to have a tasty beverage. I will have to see if I can get a copy of that paper and see if it really is me and where it was taken.

Over the holidays Eric Meyer requested assistance to raise money to help a friend David who's wife was diagnosed with a form of cancer. He has raised over $10,000 according to the Team Training Page and I just got an email announcing that after 4 months of chemo the cancer is gone! I was glad to donate money toward something which ends so well.

And you can still donate, because it is obviously still a great cause. Unfortunately most people have lost a friend or a family member to cancer, so this is real way to help prevent it from happening again. Just donate on David's Team Training Page to send some help to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Yesterday was actually a pretty good day. The only bad part was running into a crazy woman I dated recently. We did not talk at all but the situation was condition Orange for a while. Now we are back at condition Green.

I have this odd feeling that something undesirable is going to happen tomorrow. My own version of Spidey Sense might be telling me something. Maybe I should just stay in bed tomorrow.

It is the time of the year when we take a little time to get in touch with those who matter most and also to consider what we can do for those in need. As I am reading blog entries today I found something I feel others should read. Eric Meyer is asking for help with raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. He explains that his best friend Dave is working to support his new wife who has been diagnosed with Stage II Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Please read Eric's Request for Assistance. Have a happy holiday.

Just under a month ago a couple of my brothers left to the Middle East to serve with the Air National Guard. They are on some base in some country but as a civilian I am not supposed to know exactly where they are located. They can still use email occasionally and they just sent me this photo. A couple of weeks back Steve sent me a copy of a press release one of his commanders had released about these new 500lb bombs they rushed to Iraq. The press release explained that ironically these bombs were designed to minimize civilian casualties as they take out insurgent fighters who routinely attacks innocent civilians. Typically these strikes are at locations they believe they will hit
Al Queda leader Al-Zarqawi and his commanders who plans car bombs in public places and lofts mortars into populated areas.
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