Tourism Triumphs: VISIT Milwaukee hosted its annual meeting at Turner Hall Ballroom with an optimistic outlook at the city’s tourism scene. Remarks from VISIT Milwaukee President and CEO Paul Upchurch and Milwaukee Bucks President Peter Feigin, plus a mayoral declaration and Jigsaw Advertising’s recap video, were on the agenda. Mayor Tom Barrett and the Common Council were honored for their streetcar commitment. Alderman Terry Witkowski accepted the nod, thanking Jose Perez and Bob Bauman. DearMKE honors went to Milwaukee Food Tours’ Theresa and Wade Nemetz.
Ascending to the hall’s mezzanine for food and frivolity were Key Magazine’s Roger and Beth Stafford and Laure Leplae-Arthur, and Irish Festians Patrick Boyle, Cathy C. Ward and Peg Masterson Edquist. The Mandel Group’s Bob Monnat was also on hand, along with Milwaukee Downtown BID economic development director Matt Dorner and outreach manager Renée Lindner from the Burleigh Street Community Development Corporation. VISIT’s Meg McKenna organized the event, helped by new director of communications Kristin Settle.
Happy Anniversary: City Year Milwaukee (CYM) celebrated its fifth anniversary with a Ripples of Hope fundraiser at Turner Hall Ballroom honoring Julia A. Uihlein, the force behind Milwaukee’s involvement. Uihlein was inspired by her son Charlie’s positive City Year experience in Chicago. Now the head of We Grow Greens, he surprised her with a glowing introduction. Milwaukee’s 85 AmeriCorps members were on hand, with Kinnethia Tolson and Carlos Yugar welcoming everyone.
|
Other speakers included Mayor Barrett, Howard Bornstein from CYM national sponsor Bain Capital Ventures, Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Darienne Driver, CYM Executive Director Jason Holton, success stories from corps members, and co-chairs Marsha Sehler of Uihlein-Wilson Architects and James Rauh of Marietta Investment Partners. Uihlein and her husband, David, awarded a $3 million challenge grant to CYM from their charitable foundation.
Table Tales: Chef, caterer, spice expert and now author Elizabeth Crawford discussed her new book At the Table: Recipes and Techniques at Boswell Book Company. More than 75 family and friends listened about the book’s creation and her culinary experiences in Paris and Israel. Relatives there included mom Beverly Colton, with her husband, Erv, and brothers Cream City Ribbon owner Eric Crawford and Carl Crawford with his wife, Hara Levy, and their children, Jonathan and Mia.
Among Crawford’s many friends were Administrative Law Judge Rose Ann Wasserman and her husband, geologist Daniel Feinstein, Robert and Adriana Ragir, who divide their time between Brew City and Paris, Steve Cohen, Crawford’s editor Laura Murphy, photographer John Ruebartsch, Rose Balistreri, T’ai Chi Ch’uan Center of Milwaukee founder Mike Milewski and instructor Julia Mueller with her daughter, Emmaline, and Scott and Frida Winkler. Crawford is soon relocating to Madison.
Gay Paris: Charlie Scheips, writer, curator, cultural historian, founder of the Condé Nast Archive and once-Shorewoodian, was at Villa Terrace to promote his new book, Elsie De Wolfe’s Paris: Frivolity Before the Storm. His charming tales related the opulence of pre-World War II Paris and De Wolfe’s role in it, referring to her as the “Mother of Interior Design.”
The Friends of Villa Terrace benefit was co-hosted by Boswell’s and the design committee consisting of Sarah Slaughter, Stephanie Van Alyea and her mom Pat, Mary Brown, Marie Tallmadge and Peabody’s Interiors president Kelly Gallion. Although Scheips departed Milwaukee in ’73, many longtime friends were on hand including Rick Cudah, Jill Heavenrich, Nat Beckwith and Joan Urdan. Also listening raptly were Michael Crichton, Mary and Ross Read, Liza Perry, Margot Paddock, Margaret Elsner Howland, Pam and Jeff Shovers, Marsha Sodos, Moira Fitzgerald and Susan Ford.
Stopping by Café 1050, B&D happened upon the restaurant’s Wednesday music night with Xeno as the eve’s featured performer. Listening in were musician Scott E. Berendt of the US Project, guitarist Bill White and his wife, Barbara, fans Charlie and Joyce Tiber, Barb Pfaff and Amy Speich celebrating her birthday with pal Marie Judd.
Nik of Time: Alderman Nik Kovac presented his “message of realistic hope” at a re-election fundraiser at Von Trier. Applauding were his “aldermama” Thea Kovac and father Peter Kovac, plus fiancée Grace Fuhr. Pols included fellow aldermen Michael Murphy and José Pérez, plus Sen. Chris Larson, Rep. Jonathan Brostoff, and former state senator and now lobbyist Gary Goyke. Also present were Gary Witt, Mark Ernst, Tanya Atkinson, Chris Adams, John Sidoff, Mike Vitucci, Sean Burns, Nick Schmidt and milwaukeestories.org writer Jabril Faraj.
Memorization Marathon: Theatre Gigante’s Terminus by Mark O’Rowe is an amazing theatrical feat of interlocking monologues by a lonely woman (Megan Kaminsky), her repentant mother (Isabelle Kralj) and a mass murderer (Tom Reed). The play is a whirlwind of amazing verbiage.
At the sold-out opening were Kralj’s “adoptive family,” the Zovics. They included attorney Joanne Lipo Zovic and her husband, Paul Zovic, new Shorewood trustee, their daughter, Taylor Zovic, from Minneapolis and her boyfriend, Mac Leydon. Also in the audience were Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra violinist Andrea Wagoner, Shirley Baggott, UW-Milwaukee’s Melita Koletnik, photographer Dennis Darmek and Trek Bicycle’s Patsy Tully, as well as Angela and George Jacobi, writer Paul Enea and poet Elliot O. Lipchik. Board members Eve Lipchik and Kay Brogelman put on a great post-play spread.
If you have any tips for Boris and Doris, contact them at borisanddorisott@aol.com. Their next column will appear in the May 28 issue of the Shepherd.